


Destiny is a Jerk - English Version

by SoraDelrynn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Supernatural
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:14:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29159466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraDelrynn/pseuds/SoraDelrynn
Summary: Life looks strange to Rozary, Bellatrix's daughter. But one day, this guy with strange eyes comes into his life. And others after him. Her Destiny is bonded to the Universe's Harmony. But who could get out of this without a scar ?... Or just alive ? She'll have to learn to think like someone else... And things won't be that easy. DESTIEL. SABRIEL.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Gabriel/Sam Winchester





	1. Waking up the Demons

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Destiny is a Jerk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5713027) by [SoraDelrynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraDelrynn/pseuds/SoraDelrynn). 



> Here's a translation of my very first crossover. Hope it's well-translated and you'll be able to enjoy it !  
> (Team free will only comes at chapter 3)

The night was dark as ink and the ballroom seemed darker then ever. The enchanted ceiling dropped false raindrops, disappearing halfway up, right above the heads of the people gathering around the five tables, which filled the room. Never had the ceremony of distribution seemed gloomier to her, then today. But she stayed quiet, in her corner, at the end of the table, all in the back, far away from the teachers and out of the light of the candles, while observing with one watchful eye the hat. Like each year it distributed the first years into their respective houses. But she did not really cared.

She thought back to her own distribution, the fear she felt of what she would had to endure if she hadn't been chosen into the right house. How would her parents have taken it, if this object of a hat had chosen to place her into another house?

But it hasn't been the case. She was right where she had to be and nothing, ever, could describe the feeling she had experienced when the hat, barely grazing her hair, send her to Slytherin. Was it the only thing he saw in her? A snake? What if she wanted to be something else? But that was not the case, the hat has never been wrong. At least was that the information the legends and history, of the enchanted hat, let to believe.

So why, for six years now, does she feel out of place? Certainly, she was particular fond of the values that were instilled to her through her noble background. She felt ready, if the times comes, to resume the family ideal to put on the black coat and serve the Dark Lord in his quest for power and purity, as her name predestined it.

Secretly, she dreamed of taking the reins of power herself. Why not get an important post in the ministry, create and enforce laws as she saw fit?

Barely eating anything, she got up in the wake of her comrades after the director ended his speech and went to the dungeons. Paying little attention to the damp and cold walls, let alone to the portraits that followed her as she passed by. She was lost in her thoughts.

One day she could do it ... She had already reached a significant milestone, when she became Head Girl of this year. She had now become more important in the eyes of many, but her parents have not appreciated her new promotion. They thought it best to keep a low profile, when you wished to work for the "evil". But really, what was evil and good? Each person has his or her own believes, right?

She, at least, thought having a visible and appreciated coverage, while operating in the shadows to fulfill her evil designs would be nice and worth working for.  
"Hey, Rozary! "  
She whirled around, wondering who had dared to call her by her first name. She could not stand it and hated it. Sure she liked her name, one of the few better gifts that her mother had made her, but ... she did not liked it if someone else uses it. It was customary at Hogwarts, to be called by the surname and that suited her perfectly.  
Unfortunately, the name of Lestrange had become almost as taboo as the Dark Lords`.

Her work as prefect of Slytherin weighed more than she could have imagined on her shoulders: Giving the new passwords to those who asked for it, monitor hallways with teachers and above all "keep a reign of harmony between the houses," as Dumbledore loved to say. This was what she hated most. `Taking care of others.` She had already struggling to take care of herself ... No, she could not take care of others. She wanted to be as strong as others imagined she was: No mistakes, no weaknesses by keeping a mask on her face sometimes impassive, sometimes smiling.  
Rozary did not have many friends. Many visited her, belonging to the same house as her but she hated to be surrounded by this circle of admirers, if one could call these leeches as such, who followed her everywhere. She has never confided to anyone of them, because she had not found anyone worthy for her attention, but many because she had been taught, from a young age, that to love someone was a weakness… and she does not have the right to be weak...

It was shortly before christmas that everything changed. While she hestitated, alone in the common room, to send the letter she just wrote. Where would she go this year? To her aunt? Or rather her parents? Staying at school seemed more prudent, given the current circumcances.

It has now been a year since her parents had escaped from Azkaban and she would have loved to see them again with all her heart, but did they feel the same? Were they able to grant these unforgettable moments that everyone remembers with pleasure with old age? She doubted it…

She even doubted that they are capable of loving. They do not even love each other so why would they love her? She hoped more than anything they would, eventhough she had never had the feeling of being loved. By nobody.

Rozary had always felt like a burden. That was why she wanted to be independent as soon as possible and show everyone, who doubted her, that she can be stronguer as many are lead to belive. Her name would not change anything about that. She planed of having a double life, and if it would be the only price to pay, she would gladly take the burden onto her to prove she was independent...

It was then that her cousin chooses to sit down next to her. She wondered what he wanted, he who for once was not flanked by his two oversized bodyguards. Slowly looking up from the parchment she had on her knees, she looked into the grey eyes that seemed to scan her. "Can I help you, Draco?"

"Father and Mother send me a letter. We will be in Bulgaria for our vacation. They wanted to know if you would like to join us."

A trick question.

She would have loved to see Bulgaria, like all travels she did with her family and aunt, as she loved nothing more then to meet and learn new cultures. But she was suspicious. Would it be really the right decision to make?

Since some time, she had a strange feeling she was unable to put her finger on, unknown to her and she did not knew how to handle it or what it could be. Should she listen this impression that emanated from his heart? Perhaps.  
Draco seemed to get impatient and with his drawl voice he insisted. "I have to answer them tonight."

"Tell Cissy I would love to join, but that I have too..."

"See your parents? Do you even know where they are in this moment?"

"Obviously you beaten up Muggle! But no; I think I will stay here."

"Here? There are only vermin that stay in Hogwarts during vacations and you should know it, Rose! Potter and his group, other Muggleborns and traitors to their own magical blood. Are you sure you want to stay?"

She nodded. Her decisions, even if they weren't always well reflected, were final once taken. Too bad for Bulgaria, to bad for the memories and family members, but she wanted to think about herself for once.

Without another word, her cousin got up, and walked to his dorm, a spiral staircase leading down into the depths of the castle, depths unknown to most of the occupants of this castle, who were oblivious to the underground elements of Hogwarts ... She watched him go, pensive, as usual. During these years, he was more like a brother than a cousin to her, although, Lucius always kept a difference between them. But even without that, she would never show any feelings towards Malfoy. She was, and would remain a Lestrange. Because of her resemblance to her mother, mainly, her father had never spoken to her. More than that, the only nice words that she had ever recived on his part, had been scribbled on a parchment in speed, to congratulate her admission in the green and silver house and some money he added believing it would be something she needed.  
The young women put down her writing materials on the coffee table, while looking around her. It was late and everyone had gone to bed. She was alone now, in the common room and in her heart ...

On Christmas day, she woke up alone in her dorm. Some gifts were deposed at the foot of her bed. A book from Dray, who certainly knew her too well: it was a book on the political powers of the wizarding in the world, their strengths and weaknesses. She vowed to study it sentence by sentence as she scanned the other presents, a dagger with strange properties at it seemed to her, by her uncle and aunt and a simple box, cardboard, surrounded in a hurry with a string that had seen better days. Inside was a stone, at first banal but after a simple "Revelio" made her discover that it was in truth an illusion. The outer parts of the stone turned into sand that rilled to the bottom of the box. In her hand was a left gem of a pure red. It was shaped like a rose, and filled half of her palm and she instenly knew where it came from. Bellatrix ...

A tear of joy ran down her cheek. Her mother thought of her, and had sent her a gift as beautiful as her first name, Rose. She would cherish her gift for the rest of her life. Finally, her mother was capable to love. It was pretty hard to believe, given how she behaved with her in the past, but Rozary understood. She had no choice, it was necessary that she shows no weaknesses. To nobody. That, the young Slytherin could well understand.

The drop of joy continued his run, alone and unique, down the cheek of the woman who had released it and went on its way until it disapeared inside of the box. But where it should have fallen on the sand and be stifled, one heard the sound of a drop that encountered a hard surface. She looked down at the box, investigating origin of the noise that shouldn`t be and saw that the sand had formed words in the bottom of the box.

" Do not forget me. Tonight in the Forbidden Forest. 22h. "

Joy grew in her and overflowed her body like a erupting volcano. She was going to meet her! The woman she had always admired, dreamed, yet never really crossed since she was born! She, who was a rolemodel for her, the one without which she would never have been born. She, with whom she had never been alone together for one evening, now offered one moment of privacy by herself!

For the first time since years, she got out of bed in good humor, not even thinking to join the others in Christmas morning but instead rushed into the library after burning box in the open fire. By leaving her room, once certain that all evidence of the coming of Bellatrix in Hogwarts were cleansed, she could have sworn to hear the laughter so characteristic of her mother in the rustling of the flames, where the box was turned into ashes.  
With a smile across her face she finally reappeared, hungry, in the great hall, with the rose sparkling around her neck. Held by what seemed to be a stylized leather band, the result of a spell that had taken her all day . She wore a black dress with the strange cut, and her hair was resting loosely on her shoulders while cascading down her back. Night had already fallen a long time ago and she had the impression that all eyes were turned to her. Some students and teachers said something to her, but others, including a final year student of Slytherin, didn`t say anything and only observed her. There were some in the room she did not knew and one of them seemed to pierce her with his eyes. Who was this boy? ... His gaze seemed to scan her, and it gave her a strange sensation, she did not know, as if he was reading her. She shook her head, sat down and pretended to restyle her hair, while trying to remember the moment of happiness that inhabited her since this morning, calmly, eating with others as if nothing had happened, discreet and noble as usual.

But she smiled. A frank and sincere smile. Not a static and cold smile like the one she usually wears but a warm smile. Her impassive mask? Forgotten, buried even. Today she felt good and she wanted everyone to know about it. Eventhough some did not even realized the change and the party resumed as if nothing had happened. But that one guy, this one guy! Who was he, dammit? Why does he look at her? And why does she not seem to remember his name, nor his face? She was supposed to know everyone of her house!

Certainly, between the visit she was going to have and the strange guy, the day seemed not to be over ...  
Wrapped in a cloak, scarf, and totally black gloves, she walked through the snow to the edge of the forbidden forest, taking care to cover her footsteps in the snow with a mental incarnation. Nobody could follow her if no one knew where she was and that's why she made other forget about her as soon as she had finsihed her meal. Wandering the corridors, forgetting her role as Prefect, everything she wanted was not to be seen. Everything that made her happy few hours ago had now metamorphosed into doubts and questions. Why had Bellatrix decided to see her precisely today? What did she want from her? and why, above all, taking the risk of coming here, to Hogwarts?

Other questions arose in her, as she approached the tall trees and came to mingle with her heart. What was this gift, which she hardly ever received any from her mother? What was it in reality? She, the most wanted Death Eater among the escapees from last year, would be proud of her daughter? She was wondering about what her mother was planning to do, and how she was looking like when they will meet up... How will their first meeting since ages pass? Questions over questions, pierced her mind and soul.  
She would know soon, she thought. She no longer had to erase her footprints of her steps, now that she entered the dark forest, but where to go? The message of her mother had been vague and brief. It only told her to go into the Forbidden Forest ... But this information was far from accurate. Where to move now?

In doubt, she decided to continue more or less straight ahead, using her wand to stay informed on the direction she came from, she didn`t wanted to get lost when it came to find the way back. A deadly silence reigned under the foliage. Even the sound of her footsteps seemed unrealistic. A twig snapped. Was it under her feet or was it from someone else? She felt being watched, eyes piercing her back.

Scanning her surroundings, carefully piercing the darkness for any danger that might arise, she began to question if the crack had not just been her imagination. Playing a trick on her, as suddenly an other twig cracked. Closer this time. She focused her wand to show the path to be taken while looking for the origin of the noise. Still nobody, instead a glowing, red orb rose slowly in front of her. It seemed to have been there for some time already, but Rozary seemed to have not noticed it before. She then realized that the glow came from the rose she wore around her neck. Depending on the direction she was taking, it shone more intensely. As driven by intuition, she chose to follow the direction indicated to her by the new necklace.

Slowly, the stone began to sparkle with increasing intensity, and the young Slytherin wonder how far one could see the light of her necklace in the darkness of the forest. Now lit up like a small sun with a red glow. It did not blind her, quite the contrary, but she could not understand how it was possible. Or how her mother was able to bring such an object in the castle, because it seemed very clear now that it drove her toward the object of her thoughts, namely her mother.

Soon she came to a small clearing, in the center grew a huge tree, bigger than any she had came across in her life. It was strange, she thought. It inspired tranquility in this dark place.

The snow sparkled under the glow of her pendant, and it seemed to her, more than before, that she is being watched. And as if to confirm her intuition, a shadow broke away from the tree and slowly approached her into the reddish light. Her heart leapt when she continued to walk towards each other. They had not seen each other for over a year, since exactly one week before her mothers escape, but she would have recognized her among a thousand, even at this distance . Her mothers approach, her sure step, as if nothing could touch her beauty and personality made Rosarys heart jump. Even after all she had endured, Bellatrix seemed unshakable in her madness.

Now, far from Azkaban, without the grime that covered her mother day and night, in decent clothes, their resemblance sprang to her eyes and gave her more pleasure than she would have thought. Looking like the woman, which had been formed by the dark lord himself, who despite life imprisonment to him and several attempts of corruption, which she had suffered, had never diverted her mother from her convictions made Rosary proud. That`s what she had been taught; keep your wits and stay right in your boots.  
Immediately, all the doubts she had felt a few minutes earlier were gone. Her mother smiled. Rozarys` footsteps became faster as she approached the Death Eater. She did not care for the reasons of her visit, she chose to take advantage of this moment to be alone, together. She had waited for years and now the moment was right and belonged to her.  
Once face to face, the mother and daughter looked at each other. The girl wanted to take her in her arms, but she did not dare to make the first move. Bella had never been very demonstrative to her, but was due to the prison, or was her natural being?

"Rozary ..."

Rozarys` heart jumped. How she liked her name! But she would never accept it other then by her parents lips. Even Malfoy did not even try to call her by her name since the one time she had such a breakdown, she had almost killed the house elf under the blows of rage. This is why he had assigned a diminutive to her.  
"Yes, Mother?"  
"I need you ... " Immediately, the girl panicked. Does her mother had problems? For someone like her to come to her for help, it had to be serious. But the lady in black continued. "The Lord needs you. "

So the visit of Bellatrix has a whole other reason in reality. She did not wanted to see her. She was only the messenger of the Dark Lord. Would she have given her the same gift, if she had not had to meet or convey a message from the dark lord? The doubts returned, but she kept her calm, proud and dignified as she had been taught by her mother. Do not show emotions.

"What is it?"  
"It is a mission entrusted to someone. But this person is weak and can not carry out its task. Therefore it is necessary that you take care of it. Do it for him."  
"What do I need to do?"  
"Kill Dumbledore, as soon as possible and without failure. Then, if you will, you can follow my steps and will be formed by the Dark Lord, like your father and me."  
"Can I ask to whom the mission was entrusted?"  
"No. But if you open your eyes, you will find out by yourself. " Rozary reflected. She had a golden opportunity here to gain more power, to finally prove her worth to the world. But for that, he would have to kill one of the greatest wizards of his generation, in cold blood. Overgo someone she did not know the identity, which was certainly also someone more powerful than her. But afterwards ... A smile illuminated her face. " It's a go. I accept the mission."  
"Very good. When you are done, walk up to the Shrieking Shack, and planeswalk from there to the mansion of Lucius and Cissy. We will meet there.

Rozary nodded, and her mother, without adding anything, walked away and became one with the shadow of the big tree. Rosary remained alone, Merlin knows how long, thinking about how she was going to preoceed, the light of her necklace worn off now made her become one of the many shadows that willed the forbidden forest. Until footsteps broke the silence around her. Somebody was approaching her…


	2. Roots

Stressed, and realizing that she was alone in the darkness, far from the castle, and in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, she turned around to face the origin of the noise.A weak light was moving forward to her, and soon she recognized a human body. Lightening then her wand, well-decided to defend herself, she noticed he was just a student from school. Looking at his cloak, she noticed he was a Slytherin. But he was too far to recognize who he was. That's when he uncovered his head. At first, she didn't notice his face... He was the seven year she saw earlier. That seemed to obe a few weeks, and in the same times a couple minutes ago. If anyone'd asked her to describe him right now, she couln't have said anything about him. She only saw his eyes. There was a strange light, coming from them. Truth is she couldn't even see their color, only that light she couldn't identify, and she was pissed not to understand.

  
  


He got closer during this time, and the two young students were now face to face, looking at each other. She had the feeling he could read in her like in an open book. Maybe was it true, but how ? She was a lmegilimens for a long time now, since she was a kid. He was certainly using something else... But was there something else ? Not that she knew about...

  
  


How long did they stay there, staring at each other ? He wasn't even looking at her in the eyes, like he could see her whole, like she was, beyond the mask she was wearing all the time, and yet he didn't talk. What was he ? Why did she never see him before ?

« You're shining... » His voice too was bewitching. It took her several seconds to realize what he just had said, and to find what to answer.

« What is shining ?...

\- You, he just said. Something changed, inside you. I noticed it earlier, but it's even worse now...

\- What are you talking about ? And who are you ?...

\- My name is Johannes.

\- Johannes... What ?

\- I don't know. And you are Rozary, aren't you ?

\- Yes... » She didn't even wanted to precise her familyname. How strange it was, not to feel compelled to say who you are. But he certainly knew that...

Her name, that only her mother could say out loud, sounded like fairybells when he was saying it. His voice was hypnotic, almost as his eyes, that she hadn't stop looking since he entered the clearing.

She suddently felt chilly. That's the exact moment she realised she was cold, at the same time he smiled to her. Thousands of stars just came across his eyes, and she realized she wasn't well. She wanted to come back to the warmth of the castle, and cuddle next to the common room's fireplace with a hot chocolate. Not to think about tonight anymore, nor what would happen next. Not thinking about anything, except that Johannes just smiled at her. And, just for that, she'd never regret coming here tonight, because even if her life changed radically from now on, the remembering of that smile gave her the will to become somebody better...

Going into the castle, silent as the two reptiles they were, they passed through a few ghosts, and Peeves, the poltergeist, who threatened to denounce them until he saw one of the students was a Lestrange, after what he didn't say a word and dissapeared behind a painting.

Rozary and Johannes hadn't say a world since their introducing. They've stayed a few more moments under the snow, before starting to leave with the same footsteps towards Hogwarts. They weren't llooking at each other, weren't toucheing either, they were just simply walking.

A simple spell lightened the fireplace, which started to crack unter the lighting gaze of the strange student, still staring at her. She saw something move a bit further, annd called the house elf, asking - ordering – it to bring them two hot chocolates, what he did. When the Prefect sat by his side, he took the cup to his face and just breathe the drink inside. « It smells very good. What is it ? »

Rozary looked at him, stunned. « You don't know hot chocolate ?...

\- No. What is it ? He asked again.

\- Give it a try. You'll see soon enough. » He slowly drank, not seeming to care about the warmth of the drink, then smiled again, to Rozary's greatest happiness. She'd want him to smile like that every seconds. She'd want to be the cause of that smile.

« It's good ! And... How did you do ?

\- How did I do what ?

\- To light the fire.

\- It was just a spell... » Definitely, that guy was strange. He was older than her, and asking how she was doing magic ?...

« Oh I see... Is that what I'll learn here ?

\- You are... New ? » That was explaining a lot. Why she never saw him.

« Sure ! I arrived this morning. I can't wait to see what I'll learn here !

\- Where yere you ?

\- In an irish forest. This school's headmaster came there and took me when my master died. He says he can help me...

\- Your master ?

\- Yes. I am a druid. Haven't you notice ?

\- How could I ? Druids have disappeared for hundreds of years !

\- Yet here I am... »

  
  


They continued talking. She learned a lot about him, and swore to spend her next free time at the library to informate herself about the druidic culture, because things that seemed obvious for Johannes weren't for Rozary, and he seemed difficult for him to explain certain things. But that wasn't bad. He just had to be taken care of, and she had responsabilities towards him, such as teaching him the school's rules, learning him spells, where the secret passages are, and so on... The year was just starting, and yet she'd have a lot to do...

  
  


A thought crossed her mind. She was supposed to kill the very man that made her meet the young man. The one that had made him not to be lost in the middle of the forest with the half of his learning done.

Another thought pushed the first. He was a weakness. A distraction. Nothing good in her life, her objectives ! He knew nothing about her world, lived in a totally different universe... What was he doing here ? In Slytherin, talking with her, why did she ever spoke to him ?

The look he gave her at this very moment, barely a heartbeat after she had had those two opposite ideas threw them both away. She wasn't thinking about anything anymore, but about this moment they were sharing.

The sound of a grambling stomac made them both comine back to the present moment. One look to her watch showed her it was time for breakfast, and none of them had slept. But that was nothing. She had to go meet Dumbledore, and ask him how she could help Johannes for the best. Without looking away from her mission.

Could she really mix them both ? She hoped it with all of her heart, because make her family proud had always been one of her number one objectives. She had to be worth of her familyname. But she also wanted to follow the steps of the druid, and know more about him...

Rozary stayed staring to her empty plate, without filling it. She didn't know what to eat. Her body was hungry, but she didn't feel the need to eat. Forgotten, yesterday morning and its surprise, forgotten, her mother. Nothing mattered but the one sitting by her side. Even Potter and his two friends weren't so annoying anymore, even if they were laughing right in front of them. She was watching him from the corner of her eye, a pinch in the heart when somebody but her was answering to Johannes' questions. But she was trying to focus on something else. Dumbledore. There was alot about him in her mind.First, her mission, but since tonight she wanted to know more about her last meet, and he was the most aware to answer her. Then, maybe she would learn something that might help her kill him, who knows ?...

When the headmaster stood up after the meal to go in his office, she stood up too, fast enough to almost make her chair fall, that she caught at the last moment under the looks of everybody else. But only one look mattered to her. « Where are you going ? » asked Johannes, almost begging her. She was the last Slytherin in the castle, she perfectly understood him not to want to mix with the others...

« I'll come back » she said in a reassuring tone before ripping her from those hypnotics eyes with no real color, before running across the castle after Dumbledore.

She caught him at the bottom of the stairs leading to his office. Did he walk so fast ? How many secret passages did he use ? Or maybe she was lost for too long into the druid's eyes ?.. She didn't stop on those futiles questions. SO much more wanted to cross her lips...

« Yes Rozary ? » How she hated that, when the headmaster was calling them by their name. But she couldn't change that.

« Professor... May I talk with you ?

\- Of course. Come have a seat with me, then we'll talk. »

She then followed the old man with half-moon glasses to his spacious office filled with storages on which were shining many tiny objects. She didn't look long at them, and crossed the room, standing straight in front of the desk before the wizard told her to seat, what she did. « I am listening. What do you want to talk about ?

\- It's about Johannes, started the young woman. Iwonder what he is doing here. He knows nothing about magic, can barely use a wand, and doesn't seem comfortable in the castle. The common room seems to hurt him, but that's maybe because it's under the lake... And, I thought druids had disappeared ? How many are them ? And why taking him in the heart of Hogwarts ? »

The old man quietly waited for her to end her monologue, before crossing his fingers in front of his face and looking at her above his glasses. Then he spoke, with a very calm voice that usually annoyed her but now was feeling quite reassuring.

« You see, there's a very few people who knows that druids still exist. They're almost vanished, and Johannes might be one of the last of his specie, if I can say so. He knows nothing about our world, indeed, but could teach you a lot about his, even if he sadly didn't know it for a very long time...

\- Because his master dies.

\- Indeed. There were just a bunch of them, and they all died from old age. Druidism is a gift, you see, and he has been taken care of by an old society who couldn't totally teach him to control this gift before extinguishion. At the death of the last of them, Johannes was completely lost. The ministery of Magic learned about him a little before that happened, and I have been chosen to take him in good care, at Hogwarts...

\- But... He can't use a wand, can he ?

\- No. He doesn't need it, just the way you need yours. He is norn with the gift of natural magic just like you're born with the gift of profanatic magic.

\- Then, why taking him to this school ?

\- Because if we don't figure out a way for him to control his powers, he stays a danger for himself and others. Druids live very old you see, so he almost hadn't the time to learn anything.

\- Is he so powerful ?

\- Even more than you think. I had to add a few protections around the castle to moderate his capacities, so he could not put the students in danger.

\- And what about the common room ? Why doesn't he feel good in there ? I thgought it was made to please the Slytherins ?

\- It is of course. But he isn't clearly speaking a slytherin. The storing hat putted him there as he could've with another house, it's only due to his values and deep ambitions. But about his bad feeling in the common room, I think you already have the explanation...

\- The underground ?

\- Exactly. His powers are a part of him, without them he'd have nothing. He can only blossom in the middle of a forest.

\- One last question, why am I so ttracted to his eyes ? Why can't I look at anything else ?

\- I knew this question'd come. I just didn't think it'd come from you. Druids are surrounded by mysteries, because they're very secrets. What I'm about to tell you is just a lore, but maybe it'll help you. There's a very old story that says that you can only see the true powers of a druid by their eyes. That only somebody very powerful, or granted to a big future can read their gaze, somebody who'd have a very special bond with the druid. Johannes is then very powerful, as you have noticed since you get easily lost in his eyes. Do you know which color they are ?

\- No...

\- Exactly. For each person looking at him, they've a different color. Because every person had a differen level of power. The fact that you can not distinguish the color means that you're bonded to him, that you want it or not, by forces that are beyond the both of you. You certainly must do something similar to him...

\- He said I was shining...

\- Certainly your aura. He then have way more abilities than I thought... I'm counting on you to help him manage with those... He's going to need you.

\- And what about classes ?

\- He can go to whatever class he wants, after all, we can't teach him anything here. He'll then go with you. I'm counting on you to use your freetime to help him. Will you know how to manage that, and your rôle as Prefect ?

\- I will try, Professor...

\- Very well. Now, excuse me but I have things to attend. And I believe our dear druid friend is looking everywhere for you... »

Rozary thanked the headmaster before leaving the room, her head even more filled with question than it was before she entered. But she pretended it was nothing, just before finding Johannes at the bottom of the stairs of theheadmaster's office, without even wonder how he did get there. She then realized she had felt cold and empty without him, and got closer to the yound man as they sere going through the big stairs leading to the great hall, in the direction of the park...

  
  


  
  


Days passed, then weeks after them. Soon, winter became a distant memory and, as buds were growing on every plant in the park, Rozary could see the shining into Johannes' eyes groing, sush as the days were getting longer.

They didn't talk much. She had stopped asking him about everything, and so did he, cos' if they bere both interested in each other's world, they didn't wanted to be rude and then waited for more spontaneous explanations. They never had to wait for a long time, as the one who had started the subject often lost themselve into their explanations, totally into their world... And oftenly loosing the other with more questions.

The hole castle was changing by the arrival of Johannes. People stopped, whatever house they were in, to greet him, to talk, or even being seen by his side, that guy with the strange eyes everyone was talking about. But Rozary was taking care of the too curious people, becoming more possessive... And violent. She couldn't control it, she wanted to have him for herself, again and always... Everymoment they were not together seemed like the eternity, like something has decided they had to spend evetytime with each other. But she was afraid. Afraid he'd be ripped from her, afraid something might happen to him if he wasn't with her. She even sometimes was forgetting what her mother had asked to her. Everything seemed unreal...

Reality stood to her face whey they were sitting on a rock by the lake, their feet above the water. Voices were heard behind them, and even before knowing who was coming, she was standing up, raising her wand, ready to welcome the visitors. His nearly-white hair couldn't be missed, shethought seeing her cousins walking towards her as Crabbe and Goyle stayed behind. She couldn't stand those jerks, and was glad she could talk to Draco without them being around.

A hug. That's how they were saying each other hello as long as she could remember. Draco looked at Johannes, then back at Rozary. « You look more and more like her...

\- Thanks

\- That wasn't a good thing I said. Aunt Bella is unique, and you'd only be a pale copy of her. I know what she asked from you, just as you know what I've been asked to do. I'm here to offer my help. Let's do this toghether...

\- No, you can do it alone, I don't want it, nor that glory and nor what'll follow.

\- What do you want, then ?

\- ... » Tricky question. She didn't know what she wanted. Whe didn't want to kill, that was for sure. But why ? A few weeks back, she'd gladly do it ! What could have changed her that much ? And if, by not doing it, she looses the few she already have ? And her mother who trusted her... But killing Dumbledore meant leave Johannes delivered to himself... No. She'd be there to support him. But... What if he learned she was linked to the headmaster's disappearance ? What if, because of that freaky mission, he didn't want to see her, either ?

She looked down, her eyes closed, her wand in her fist. What to say ? What to do ? She didn't want, couldn't anymore, why was everything so complicated ?

Then she ran away. From far, she heard the boys calling her back, the call from Draco, the beg from Johannes. But nothing. She didn't want to see, didn't want to hear, she was tired of justifying herself, all she wanted was going far, somewhere she'd be good, away from all that...

Her footsteps lead her to the Forbidden Forest. Without knowing which direction she took, whe went deeper between the trees, probably did she fell a few times, she wasn't noticing. Branches were scratching her skin, her clothes while she was running, but nothing could stop her. She didn't even notice the rose around her neck, starting to glow. And the more she was going forward, the more the light was strong, but she didn't care, she wanted to move forward, to put the most distance she could between her and the dilemma she was running away from, without knowing she was going with big footsteps towards another kind of trouble...

With a step back, she asked herseld. Did she ran in her direction because she had felt her call, or did the rose somehow told Bellatrix her daughter was into the woods ? Was that by chance ? No. There was no chances. Never...

Her ranaway were ended by a hug. Who was in her arms ? Those smell of wild roses, soot and dry blood... She raised her tearful face to see her mother, who for once was almost lookink like amother. Normal, and worried – or at least, the most you could expect from somebody like Bellatrix. « Well well darling, what's happening ? »

The voice of the death eater sounded wrong. Rozary felt it right away. She knew her mother. Slowly, she took a step back, and dried her tears, before gazinr in her eyes... Bella burst into a crazy laughter for several seconds, then calmed down without a warning, her dark eyes riveted on her. The teenager wanted to raise her wand, but it was too late, the pain was already there.She had felt without even noticing it, bending in every way, begging for it to stop, that was unbearable, why was she doing that to her ?

Bellatrix raised the spell after several minutes – that seemed hours to Rozary – leaning over her daughter. « Why haven't you killed him yet ?

\- Because I don't want to...

\- You don't deserve your name ! » The slap hurted as much as the doloris' spell did a few seconds ago.

« You are crazy Mother... Draco will kill him. And I'll help. But I have something else to do...

\- And what does the little princess have to do that's so important she ignores her orders ?

\- Nobody can give me orders !

\- Answer me !

\- I met somebody... I have to help him... He...

\- Who ? Tell me his name !

\- Johannes.

\- Does he have pure blood ?

\- In his way yes... He's not like us...

\- What do you mean, he's not like us ?

\- He is a druid...

\- Liar ! »

She recieved a blow for each answer. The yound girl realised she was cruying. For the first time, she was scared, really scared. And that fear was even more horrible, because it came from her very own mother, eventho she thought she was the only one who didn't have to fear her... But that woman wasn't her mother. She wasn't anything anymore. She didn't wanted to see her, nor to hear about her and her damn mission. For a moment, she didn't even recognize her, and wondered if that hadn't always been the case, and Johannes has showed her who she always was deep inside...

« I'm warning you. If you don't kill Dumbledore, I'll kill your mudblood in front of you. I don't want you to see him, not talk to him, I don't even want you to think of him ! Is that clear ?

\- Yes, Mother... »

She was even surprise to have agreed with that. But it was for his survival. Because eventho Bella was scary, she didn't care to be hurt. But not Johannes. Nobody would ever touch him. Even if for that, she had to disappear.

Finally, her mother let her stand up.Without a word, without even look at her, Rozary turned around and took the castle's direction, crossing the park without noticing the people looking at her. Going to the commonroom, she pushed somebody in the stairs without seeing who, to finally arrive in a desert deadend. She tuened left, and pressed with all her strenght on the eyes of the statue that was there, seeming to wait for eternity...


	3. Reveal

Once the secret passage closed behind her, the ambiance was so dark no one could've said if she just entered a room or a hallway. Hopefully, she knew that place by heart.  
She was scared when she entered that place for the first time, three years ago. Older students – she didn't even remember who exactly – took her here for Merlin know what reason... But it was one of the only places of the castle that was always desert, because it was known by a very few people, but also because it was dark, wet, cold, and horribly dismal. She was shared by this place, it gave her the will to run away from it, but also to come get comfort when she needed it. And what better moment to need comfort than when your own mother just physically and mentally tortured you ? She had admired that woman, took her as a model in everything she could, making herself forget the atrocities she had comitted, excusing them, forgiving them, justifying them since her childhood... But she couldn't do it anymore. Today she really saw what that woman was capable of, and she was scared. Scared of becoming like her, but also scared of the most powerful Death Eater of the history... How can you live when you're scared of your mother ?  
This wasn't just some teenage fear, nor a little fright between friends. It was visceral, she didn't wanted to get close to her anymore, if she could she'd have change her name, her life, her country, even her looks to get the further away from her as possible, from that woman who infantedher just to keep her lineage going on and not by love... Say she felt into the trap...  
She was litteraly boiling of rage against Bellatrix and herself, that much that she felt on her knees, letting out tears and screams. She couldn't bear it anymore, everypart of her body was hurting, like if the Doloris' spell was still working on her. She chilled with the memory of that horrible memory, knowing she'd never get rid of it, that her nightmares would now be haunted by this memory and the fear it might happen again... What took her, damnit ?...  
How long did Rozary stay there in the cold, without moving, edgy at the most, she couldn't have said. In that place of the castle, time didn't exist anymore. She didn't even feel the atmosphere warming up around her, didn't see the lignting wand getting closer, didn't hear either those voices calling her softly, and that she wouldn't have recognized. The only thing she realised was this warmth getting her, and without realizing she turned around and grabbed the person behind her like a life buoy, like he could arrange it all, like if thanks to him the pain she was feeling would erase forever... That wasn't the case. At least, not completely, not like she'd wanted to. What she just lived would stay forever carved into her body, into her very soul...  
The arms around her slowly letted her go, and two hands delicately came onto her cheeks. That gaze that was so hypnotizing to her came plant itself into her eyes. Time seemed to have stop, nothing else mattered but what she could read in those perls staring at her, trying to comfort her silently beside the fact that, she could feel it, Johannes wasn't in his best shape, not in his element at all. Unless it was because he understood the trial she just had been through ? Without knowing it, maybe he had felt that pain without knowing where it came from ? After all they were bounded, she thought, and the thought he might have suffered because of her made her feel again the pain of the spell, more than ever...  
« Do you plan on staying here all night ? » Rozary jumped, finally realizing they weren't alone, but that three people were surrounding them, one of them lightening them with his wand, giving them the light they wouldn't need to see each other. With the weakness of the light, she could barely see their faces, and couldn't have said which opnr of them had talked, nor if she even knew them... How to react ? And more of that, who were they ? What were they doing here, and how did they find her ? One of the men spoke, with a calm voice, almost neutral and yet reassuring.  
« Come with us. We'll explain. »  
Nodding, she stood up, holding Johannes' hand like it was helping her to breathe, and followed the three men to the entrance of this gigantic black hall wo wide no one could see the walls. They closed the passage behind them then took stairs, hallways and secret passages, Rozary feeling Johannes relax as they were getting off the ground, to finally stop at the fifth floor of the west tower, in an office she'd never have noticed before. The place was cozy, a fire was burning in a big chemney, the dawn lightening up the room with many colors she didn't even imagine before. There were chairs in front of the fire, several libraries, and piles of parchments as tall as her on a table in the middle of the room. What was she doing here ?  
« Sorry for the disorder... We only arrived a fex hours ago.  
\- Who are you ?... And what are you doing here ? How did you find me ?  
\- Quiet pretty girl... Everything will come on time. First, you explain what happened to you, and what you were doing in an emergency evacuation tunnel ?  
\- Dean, let her breathe will you ? Sit down, nothing can happen to you here...  
\- You're wrong. Nowhere is safe. And how could you know anything ?  
\- Because we're here to help. »  
Rozary couldn't look away of the three men. All her being, all her soul wished to know how they could be here to help. How they were supposed to do anything. They were just wizards after all...  
Johannes' hand tightened up around hers. When he spoke after a heavy silence, she could hear by his voice that he was smiling. Oh, how his eyes would be shining right now ! But those strangers were... Hypnotics... « Rozary... They're like me ! »  
Another silence. Nothing, not even the wind shaking the forbidden forest outside, could've done any noise. The atmosphere was heavy with unasked questions, suppositions, and yet so more many things... That wasn't really heavy, far from it. Intriguing. Elecrifying. Nothing else. And that's what was wonderful.  
Suddently realizing what the druid had said, she looked closer at the three men. The first one seemed very different from Johannes, just as any other student of Hogwarts. He was simply clothed, and yet very elegant, in a wizard black robe strewn by blue sparkles... The same blue as his eyes, she noted. He was the one who spoke in a calm voice, the one who convinced her to get out of what they called an emergency evacuation tunnel... She didn't even know there was such a thing in the castle !  
The second had half-lenght hairs, quite dark. The young Slytherin realized she couldn't detail him as much as she wanted to. He was way taller than the other two, with a face half decided and half undecided, which was strange... He really seemed willing to help them...  
The third was the one that seemed to her the most nervous. The more hurry. Like if something was about to turn badly. Like he knew... But how could he know anything ? She had no idea... But his eyes... They had the same reflexion as the big hairy one. Except that he was staring at the one now sitting in front of her, the first of the three... She thought she could read something into this stare. Something like pain. Something like what she was feeling when Johannes and her were apart...  
« You are... Druids ?  
\- Almost. Our grandmother was, answered the taller one. He sat too, making place between him and the wizard so the nervous one could take place there. My name is Sam. Next to me is my brother, Dean. And next to him, Castiel. We're here to help, he said again.  
\- Listen, it's all very pretty but there's nothing you can do to help !   
\- Rozary calm down... They're not lying... I can feel it... »  
That was a weird sensation, so weird that she chilled. Hear that name she now hated more than anything spoken by the only person who mattered to her eyes... Horrifying, and wonderful at the same time. Sadly, she didn't stay calm for long... The named Dean opened his mouth, what he'd probably wouldn't have done if he had knew... But maybe he did ? « Listen, Rozary isn't it ? We don't have much time, so you're...  
\- Never say that name ! Screamed the young woman pointing her wand at him. Wand that, in a blink of Castiel's eyes flew accross the room. He seemed to read in her with his piercing eyes. Merlin, how she hated that...  
Sam stood up, both hands tensed between the two couches, looking at the two couples. « Ok, we've started on the wrong foot. We're going to calm down, take a deep breath, and start again, all right ? What are your names ?  
\- My name is Johannes, said he with a big smile. And here's Rozary, but she doesn't like to be called by that name except by her mother and me. Usually, her family call her Rose. I don't understand why, because her name is very... »  
The teenager stood up and went by the window. Outside, there was almost no sun anymore, and there were only a few red lines of light above the forest. Would she accept hearing her real name from anyone, ever again ? She'd never forbid Johannes to do so. Neither Dumbledore, because the old man was just doing whatever he wanted. But her mother... She bit her fist. Not to cry. Not to say anything in front of those strangers, those people who knew nothing, who'd anyway not understood...  
A hand landed on her shoulder, without her feeling anyone getting closer to her, nor hearing any footsteps. « Don't let your family decide for you Rose... Let your heart decide...  
\- You don't know who they are ! You don't understand anything !  
\- Don't I ? » Answered Castiel making her to face him, then lifting up his sleeve, and letting appear a black tattoo of a skull and a snake around it, that symbol she used to want to wear and which now made her nauseous... He covered his arm before looking deeply into her eyes with his icing gaze. « I think I can understand more than anyone, on the contrary... And if after our explanations you still don't believe us able to understand anything, then you'll be free to leave the room and never hear from us again. Understood ?  
\- Rose, calmly said Sam getting closer. How do you want us to understand if you don't explain ? We're not deviners... At least, not in the sense you're understanding it. Come back and have a seat, and we will...  
\- We don't have time for that Sam !  
\- Dean, she has the right to know !  
\- To know what exactly ? You think you can just come into the castle, pretend knowing me, understand me, and then everything will be fine ? »  
Johannes stood up and got closer, too. Everything seemed to have stop when he took her hand and looked deeply into her eyes. « They're not lying. I can feel it. Come, please, let's at least listen to what they have to say...  
\- That's not the point. It is my job to protect you. To make sure nothing happens to you... Dumbledore...  
\- … Is the one sending us, finished Dean. So now you're going to sit down, and listen to what we have to say...  
\- No ! You don't know, you can't... That's impossible...  
\- I don't believe it, we're wasting our time !  
\- Dean... » Castiel got closer to him, slowly. Rozary could almost see the bond linking them into their gaze... And she felt more than she saw calm invade Dean, until the moment the hand of the wizard touched the shoulder of the druid. « Give her some time. Remember how I was, at first. I was as lost as she is. And she knows nothing about what to expect from now on. She's going to need us... »  
And then, without realizing how nor why, maybe it was the contageous calm invading the room, but Rozary relaxed too, closing up her face into that neutral and impassive mask caracterizing her, she hold Johannes' hand and they went back to the couch to sit down. Everything seemed complicated, messy, she had the feeling not to control anything anymore, and that she'll never know what she truly desired. Maybe those strange men would give her the answers she was so seeking ?...  
« Castiel ? Can you take care of everything before we start ? » Asked Sam, coming to sit too, followed by Dean. The wizard let his wand slip from his sleeve, then made a circle into the air, before putting back the piece of wood into his sleeve and going to sit, too. He was imperturbable, his face was strangely closed, almost focus on something, thought Rozary, who didn't understand a thing.  
« You'll certainly have many reactions during this story, said the Death Eater. Don't interrupt. You'll ask your questions afterwards...  
\- Yes, Professor » answered the Slytherin faking joy, for what she recieved an iced look from the wizard facing her. Silence came, and Sam took that opportunity to start their story...  
« You already know that, but magic is something you're born with. And this magic gene can be brought by blood, or appear in a family of...  
\- Muggles, Sam, completed Castiel.  
\- Yes, tere, Muggles, who don't have anything to do with magic. There's also several kinds of magic, but I think Rose already knows that. Profanatic magic, that Castiel and you are using, but also several others, along with ours, natural magic. Some says there's also divine magic, but there's no proof of that yet. Natural magic only touches a few people, often in recluses communities. Several hundreds of years ago, druids were powerful people. Maybe even, more than wizards.Nature is directed by a harmony, and because druids live longer than normal humans and never stopped multiplying, the births amongst our people became more and more rares. If five druids were born in one year, that was a lot, and we had hope again for our people...  
« Merlin did a lot for us. He taught us how to hide, avoid others, all of that and taught us how to read the signs of a druidic birth, and that right on time to help most of us escape the inquisition... Because wizards could defend themselves against them. But in a stone cell, only a very powerful druid can hope to stay alive... And those weren't generally caught. It was hard times, and many dies hoping to see balance again. We were few and fewer, more and more isolated in small forest across the world... Every group might be the last one, each druid didn't hope to see a new birth anymore.  
« But one day, there were signs again. An oak grows in the middle of a sycomore's forest. Primroses grow in perfect circles at each opposite of the site where the druid is going to birth. Animals stop every noise, and the whole wood becomes silent. It is said that the calmer they are, and the longer is the silence, the more the druid will be powerful. This theory hasn't been verified in decades, because since Dean and I, the only druid being born is...  
\- Me ? Asked Johannes, confused.  
\- Yes, answered Dean. Natural magic is a part of you, more than it is a part of my brother or me. We can see it. The sad part is you didn't have the time to learn anything, and we have to figure out the rest by ourselves...  
\- How is that so ?  
\- You-Know-Who, said Sam. He saw those signs too. And heard of a prophecy, we don't know how, but it's a prophecy made by Merlin himself. The lore is given generation after generations, in the late evenings. When, after one cycle, the unicorn awakes the forest, it will be time for harmony to become again. For your birth, the forest stood silent during an entire week. On the last day, a unicorn gave birth. The mother died, and it's the cries of the baby that awoke the woods... Nobody but a druid could've understood those signs and what they meant. So nobody knows how he did to learn about your birth. Maybe he overheard a conversation between two druids ? He entered a dark anger, and ordered his death eaters to exterminate us, just like he's planning to do with the muggles.  
\- But... Why ? Asked Rozary. What the Lord wants, it's just that wizards don't have to hide anymore... Then why killing druids ? » Johannes looked at her, his undescriptible eyes deep inside hers.  
« Harmony, Rozary. Everything must live with others. Light, and dark, for example. One can't live without the other. How do you want to see a shadow in the dark ? How to see the light, if the room is already lighted from everywhere ? Without white, there's no dark, without dark, there's no white. Separate them isn't impossible, but it would create chaos. It is the very same with the prople living on this planet. Every being has his own place. It's the balance of the world that's at stake, not only that war between two camps of wizards you told me about. If balance is broken, everything we know will end...  
\- And... How do we stop that ? We kill him ?  
\- Ideally.  
\- No Dean. We're not allowed to take lives. They're all precious.  
\- Do you have another solution maybe, Sam ? We don't have a choice ! He killed our entire family, and you'd like to invite him for dinner ? You heard what Castiel said. He's not even human anymore ! »  
And Dean, who stood up from anger, Dean who's eyes seemed to irradiate, Dean who'd almost scare Rozary off, got out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The four others looked at each other, and the young woman didn't know about them, but her mind was racing. She opened her mouth to speak, but Castiel interrupted her with his hand, his wand slipping from his sleeve again. After another circle into the air, he put his icy look into hers, autorizing her to talk.  
« What did you mean, not human anymore ?...  
\- He shouldn't have told you that. It is a secret very few people know. For short, the Lord of Darkness has separated his soul into pieces to stay alive as long as possible. Even if somebody'd kill him now, he'd come back.  
\- How do it then ?  
\- Destroy You-Know-Who isn't our fight. We have to save the druids, reunite them, gather them together. And look at the signs, too, as much as we can, because the births are going to multiply soon. We need to forbid him to harm us, and if for that we have to help Potter and Dumbledore, we will. But it's not up to us to kill him. »  
Rozary wasn't understanding a thing. What was that Death Eater doing, exaclty ? Who was he ? She had never heard anything about him, and the fact that he was turning his back to his master seeemed pretty bad... But something else happened, that she didn't understood, either. Johannes and Sam, with one movement, had stood up and were now looking to the forbidden forest, while Castiel's face was decomposing. The voice he spoke with broke her heart. « Sam... Go to him. I must speak with Rose... »


	4. Confessions

Without really understanding, Rozary looked at Sam and Johannes while they left the room, running, while Castiel seemed devastated, hesistating, looking in a row at the door then at her. Closing his eyes, looking like he was focusing, he took a deep breath before seeming more relaxed, and stood up. « Come with me...

\- But... Why not speak here ?

\- I said : come with me. »

She then stood up and followed him across the castle until the seventh floor, where he made several comings and goings in the hallway, before walking towards her – who hadn't move a bit, watching him. He went to her left and opened a door, that she was sure wasn't there when she arrived. She entered after him, looking around to see what was looking like the common room. « Castiel... Where are we ?

\- The Room of Requirement. It takes the appearance of what you desire while invoquing it. And I need to feel peaceful, just ilike before it all started... So, the common room.

\- Why are you feeling bad ? And why are you telling me ? You don't seem to talk about your feelings that easily...

\- Because, for you to understand what is happening to you, I'm going to have to talk about it. And because no one can hear what I'm about to say. A few things must remain a secret, and I don't trust many people...

\- Does that mean you trust me ? » He answered with a look. « But... Why ?

\- Because you've rooted.

\- … I what ?

\- You've rooted. At first, you didn't understood what was happening to you. When you saw him, he seemed strange, but you didn't understand, and moved on. Then when you saw him again, you realised you were cold without him without realizing it. You don't know the color of his eyes, you don't know how you find each other back when you're apart, and just the idea that something bad might happen to him is hurting you, that's why you hesitate to accomplish the mission your mother gave you...

\- It's the lore Dumbledore told me about... The bond betweed the druid and...

\- His family, answered Castiel. Not the blood family, the true one, the soul family. A druid only roots one during his life. If the person he's rooted with dies, he dies too. If one suffers, they both do, and it's the same with happiness. » Rozary sat down. Those were a lot of informations at once, and it seemed to her her head was about to explode. But she suddently realised something, a sentence he spoke and she hadn't yet picked up.

« How do you know about my mother ? And my mission ?

\- Because, even if you're looking like her you're her exact opposite. I was two years older than Bellatrix, back in my time here. She certainly don't remember me.I am somebody very discreet.

\- I wouldn't say that...

\- Really ? Does the name Novak means anything to you ?

\- Novak ? It's the name of that wizard family who've been exterminated by You-Know-Who isn't it ? No more survivors from that blood...

\- Yes there is. Me. You see, I almost recieved the same education as you did : a rich family of purebloods, the others are just parasites. Getting out of Hogwarts, I became a Mediwizard, a pretty good one by the way, but I never turned my back on my family. Until the Lord asked me to. What do you know abour your mother ?

\- Ehm... That she was trained by You-Know-Who, that she married my father for the purity of blood, that she tortured the Longbottoms, then put into Azkaban... Before breaking out last year.

\- She is not the only one the Lord of Darkness trained in person. I was the first, to say the truth. He took me under his wing and told me a lot, which some seemed pretty bad, even coming from him. Discretion was what mattered the most for him, but you see, he needed publicity, to prove the world they had to fear him, but also his followers. Especially his followers. Ans I did not fit into the mold. But as I could still be useful to him, he chose to make me disappear to the world's eyes. One evening I was meeting my parents, he appeared and purely and simply executed them before signing me fto follow him. To prove my loyalty I had to end this mission, and make my name dissapear from the surface of the earth. I did not understand why, he who wanted most the purity of blood, wanted to exterminate an entire family of purebloods but, young, blind, and scared as I was I obeyed him, until I even faked my own death.

« After that, I was truly at his service. I didn't exist, but for him and his orders. Kill somebody, bring back anartefact, makinf proofs disappear... All of that was entrusted for me. I han no free will anymore.

« One day, he asked me to go see the druids. He disired to rally them to his cause. I had for mission to come back with allies, or leaving no one beside me. I hit the road at this very moment, going to search the ones who had almost disappeared. I was guided by rumors, until the day I arrived in a small village, near a forest. There were just a few houses, and I met two guys about my age as I was getting closer, asking them where I could find the person who could have helped me. I couldn't get my eyes of theirs, that was strange, I didn't understand a thing. When I got in front of the Elder's house, I picked up myself together and entered. Two people were sitting in old chairs, a couple it seemed. The man looked sick, sitting near the fire, trying to warm himself up as he could. The woman looked at me, the same light into her ayes than the two young men, then asked them to leave us alone.

« I felt weird. Really. Like if she knew. I think she did. She said she knew why I was there, and was saying no to my proposition. And that if I wanted to execute my orders, it was my right, but that it'd kill me, too. I didn't understand, I already had my wand in my hand, but something was stopping me, deep inside, I knew she was right. She smiled to me, and invited me to sit. Then she explained...

« That old lady was way older than she seemed, and had immediately recognized the signs. When I asked which ones, she said I had rooted, and explained to me what I told you earlier. That if that person died, I'd die too, and thereso killing him would have been suicide. But she also knew what would happen if I didn't kill them. She counted on my discretion, said she was ready to sacrifice if she had to, because it was her fate and she knew that for a very long time... Just the fact that Harmony would come back, and both her grandchilds would know that time, was all that mattered to her.

« We then concieved a plan. I simulated the death of what was left of her family, and the fact that she escaped me. I was taking care of them. She'd take charge of the rest... And that's what I did. I burned it all, the entire forest, simulationof the perfect little massacre, until I endure a spell by the druid that made me faint. Sam and Dean were safe, at the other side of the world, in a castle where their powers were weakened and undetectable... The Lord of Darkness appeared, and ended the job quite quickly, after having made her tell the story of Johannes' birth. After what he ended her. Then he turned to face me, and that light he had in his look, I've never had seen it for me before. I had disappointed him. He wanted me to payback. Then I made your parents break out of prison, as several others, and I started to work in the shadows again, while taking care of Sam and Dean...

« We found other druids, and several wizards who adopted the same beliefs. We were trying to gather the more people we could, because the coming war is even worse than you can imagine... And in the afternoon, Dumbledore contacted us. I think he knew what we were doing but hadn't left a finger, nor to help nor to stop us. And there, he needed help. It was urgent, did he say. We then apparate, before following him into the infirmary, where Johannes was unconscious on a bed. He shouldn't have got up and stay lying down, but Dean had understood, and we followed Johannes to the emergency evacuation tunnel... You know the following. »

Rozary stayed there without saying a word for several seconds. Thus, he really understood whas she was going through. And when Bellatrix tortured her, it affected Johannes too... That was explaining his state, when they found each other after that. And she hated herself for that, having made that so pure being suffer beyond her will, he who hadn't asked anything and who was carried into this story against his will. She didn't dare to speak, to say the truth. It was too much for her, too much to digest, and she knew it was just the beginning of a serie of informations, stories and events that'd change her forever... Just like it changed Castiel. Maybe that was the reason he was so … Strange.

Time passed, in this barely akward silence, where Castiel was trying to recover and not to seem as reached as he truly was, and where Rozary was forgetting the passing seconds. How could she complain about her life when her towards – as certainly many others – had lived so many horrible things, and got along with them ? This wizard was strong, really, and by strong she didn't mean powerful, but brave, the willing to get up and moving forward... She attributed that to Dean immediately. That seemed obvious. They were this « whole » that've been described to her so many times... And that brought another question. More akward, but she had to ask it, and she felt like he'd answer.

« Castiel ?... » He looked deep into her eyes. « Being rooted... Is it like being a couple ? I mean...

\- No, he said, seeing she was reaching for words. It's way more strong than a couple. It's a second part of yourself, that person can be your opposite or your sibling, from the same sex or not at all... Some druids never root. But if it happens, it's a bond as beautiful as dangerous. As you know it can be deadly, and protect the other is an automatism you can't escape from... Just like when Sam and Johannes went to comfort Dean. If I had listened to myself, I would've been near him way before them. But you can work on that. With experiment, work and will, you can endure the distance while keeping a permanent connexion with the other.

\- Does that mean... Well... Are Dean and you... ?

\- It is personal. But you will understand soon enough that it's way more than that. If, for example, Johannes was having sex with somebody, you'd feel exactly the same things as him, at the same time. Just like pain. And if it happens to you in public, it can be... Akward. But if two rooted have sex together... It's indescribable, you'd have to live it to understand. That said, and to answer you : no, being rooted is not the same as sharing the same bed. From the lores, some rooted druids had each their own families, and had worked enough on their bond to each live their lives separately. So, no, you won't have to get married and have children with Johannes, faite isn't that unfair, it leaves you the choice. It's up to you to know what you truly want, knowing you'll never truly be apart from him, that your life depends on his, and conversely... »

Decidedly, she'd have to learn to keep her questions to herself... Everytime she asked something to Castiel, she'd come bazck with even more questions, was he a parent of Dumbledore's ? No, he ended the days of his family... That was horrible. Even if she was feeling less and less close to her mother, what would be her reacton if someone murdered her in front of her eyes ? And her father, whom she almost had no memories about ? The Malefoys ?

Castiel had lost his gaze in the crackling fire... He had stayed up since they came in, there, next to the fireplace, telling his story more to the fire than to her, only turning his face to her in rare occasions. And, in that so significant gaze in which she lost herself, she soon saw the ice melt. She saw the true Castiel, the one who sacrificed it all for a cause he thought was right, before finding himself on board in a story too big for him, too heaavy for his shoulders... The more he spoke, theless his gaze seemed icy, but just... Human. She understood what he was living, and she chilled trying to imagine what he was really feeling deep inside.

Her gestures were automatic. She stood up, slowly, and got closer to him, until there were only a few centimetres between her and the Death Eater, and took him into her arms, without thinking. She knew it was what he needed, right now. Yes, it wasn't Dean he was hugging, but he was holding in his arms somebody who knew the truth, the very first person who came from the same world as he did, and who he could help not to make the same mistakes he did. Who he could take under his wing, who to talk with, to laugh with, of those magic events that Sam and Dean – altough interested by witchcraft – couldn't understand...

When they separated, Rozary saw the person he was. Not the rooted wizard with determinated looks beside his lostness, but really him, whole, this man with sparkling eyes who was softly smiling to her. They didn't need any words. They knew he was thanking her, and that she understood. They also knew that, because of her common roots with Johannes, she was starting to see not the human, made of slesh and bones, but the soul, the energies, what makes someone to be himself. The ice had melted, in Castiel's eyes, and she was now seeing him for who he truly was. A being full of affection, emotions, someone who's desire was just to be happy, who was ready to do anything for that, even betray an entire life of extreme beliefs just to beable to... Live. And more than that, there was pride in those eyes staring at her. That light she had so much hope to see in her closed one's gaze was appearing in the one who, a few hours before that, didn't even knew her. But that didn't mattered, except that. She had understood, without truly learning it, how to see people from their inside...

Castiel was smiling. Even if she'd seen him smile before, that wasn't anything comparing to what she was feeling right now. She could almost feel everything he was trying to say to her, none the less by this smile, but also by his eyes. How could she have thought they were like ice ? They were way more than that, expressives, playful, full of sparkles and of life... And yed, determined, a hint of sadness, that was crazy what could go through one look, she'd never expect anything like that ! She now understood how Johannes was doing to understand what she was feeling beyond her impassive mask... It was natural. She had ridden somewhere that eyes were the reflexion of the soul. That, if you were careful, you could read anuthing in one gaze. That ws exactly what was happening at this very moment. M%entally noting that she'd have to find again that book, she noticed pain sparkle in Castiel's eyes. She didn't dare to ask, but he spoke. « Dean and the others are back in the castle... »

Was it really that ? He managed to feel that Dean wasn't having his free will anymore because of the walls and magic protections of the castle beside the distance and everything that was keeping them apart ? Would she be able to do that when she'll learn how to use her roots ?... Surely...

Following him across the castle, she noticed a strange warmth getting inside her as they were getting closer of the office they had left what seemed to her weeks ago. Without looking at Castiel, she felt it was the same for him, in another way... But that was logical. Everybody is different, every life, every soul, every energy... So it was normal that the bonds between people were different, too, because even if rooting was something very complete and had similarities with each other's, there was always something different. That's what was making the thing so beautiful...

In front of the door, she hesitated, letting the Death Eater going first. Why stopping before entering the room ? Truth is, she didn't really knew, maybe to make a break between all what she had learn, and what she was about to learn, and the meeting with Johannes, after all, that was possible... But the more probable was that she wanted to be ready to finally see those druids with her new gaze, to finally understand what she barely saw...

Turning arounf after having closed the door behind her, Castiel putting back the protection spells like he did several times before, her gaze was instantly caught by what seemed to her a sphere of light, not far from her. A white, pure light, and yet she wasn't blinded.Smiling, she got closer from Johannes and his enigmatic, sparkling gaze, taking him into her arms, and enjoying this warmth she thought she had lost.It was so good to finally find him again, to feel whole again, to have him right there, against her heart... Beside her closed eyes, she felt that he was happy, like he had understood how she was now seeing him. Like he was trying to reassure her, that she don't blame herself for what he had to endure because of her... That was exactly it, she thought. She knew it, deep inside. He had forgiven her even before she did anything. But could she forgive herself for everything he went through because of her ?...

Usually, when she was in Johannes' arms, nothing could distract her. But her habits were about to radically change, and she couldn't do anything about it. A move not far from her made her separate from the druid, and when her eyes gazed upon the origin of her distraction, she went breathless. Dean and Castiel, just like her and Johannes a few moments before, were hugging each other, their eyes closed, like nothing else in the world mattered. They were surrounded by a silver halo, the clearest, whirling, hypnotic, from such a beauty that it was almost impossible not to look at it. The only word that came to her mind was « magical », but it wasn't strong enough to describe what she was seeing. It was more than magic, it was a whole, the unity incarnated. The truth. The evidence. That wasn't only the feeling of fullness whoch emanated from them or that you could read on their faces, no, it was way more than that. Undescriptible, beside all the words making her vocabulary she was certain where wasn't any that could describe what she was seeing at this very moment...

They separated. And the more they were apart, the more this aura that was wrapping them up was fading, while strenghtening. It was beautifully painful to see how much they wanted to stay close to each other forever, but that beside that, what was uniting them was still there, and would forever be...

Sitting in a corner near the fireplace, Sam was looking at them, smiling. He was truly happy for his brother, you could see it on his face, in his shining eyes, in all the energies emanating from him... He was truly beautiful, too. Phisically of course, who could have doubt that, but that light in his gaze, that smile... He never could do anything bad, Rozary was certain of that. He turned his gaze to her, and in his undescriptible eyes she saw not only happiness, the real one - beside darker shades – but she also saw what she'd seen in Castiel's eyes, earlier... Pride. He also had understood how she was seeing them, that she had taken a step, and a big one, the one of understanding and seeing people as they truly were, as druids did, like if she was seeing through their eyes... Which was the case...

But everything's got an ending. And Sam's eyes veiled themselves in a strange way, like if he was someplace else. You couldn't say anything about him, nothing was surrounding him anymore, just like if she was back to be an ordinary witch incapable of understanding. She looked again at Dean and Castiel, before realizing the problem didn't come from her, but from Sam... She got closer, and kneeled before him, putting her to his height, trying to understand what was happening, not daring to touch him, while beside her were coming the others.

After what seemed like eternity, Sam blinked, and everything went back to normal. The sparkle in his eyes, the energies around him... Yet different. She didn't know what it was. He looked into the eyes of somebody beside her. « Castiel... We need to reach Charlie. I saw him... »

Rozary looked around, not understanding a thing. Castiel nodded, his wand sliding from his sleeve into his hand, and got closer of the fireplace in front of which he kneeled, muttering incomprehensible words before throwing a fist full of what she recognized as floo powder. They were all waiting. Castiel seemed to want this to work, but she couldn't say what, not even knowing what he just did. Sam seemed troubled, by what he just saw, or by what was going to happen, or even maybe something else. Dean was determined, but also curious about what his brother just had saw. And Johannes seemed impatient, understanding he wasabout to see something incredible once again, him who barely knew magic. She was amazed to can tell all of that from those people. She never had analyzed people like that without being wrong, of that she was certain !

Flames crackled, green sparkles who soon turned into an emerald blaze filling the entire fireplace in a few seconds before disappearing, just leaving a flaming human form. Rozary had never heard of such an use of the floo powder. She didn't even knew you could use that in Hogwarts. The human form spoke. A feminine, singing voice got out of the flaming lips. « Castiel ? What's going on ?

\- We have to be quick Charlie, we don't have much time, he answered. The chimney network is protected, and we only have a few minutes before anyone knows what's happening...

\- Charlie, said Sam quickly. I think I saw him. The last master druid. The more powerful who ever existed, the oldest one alive, the one who could help us bring harmony back !

\- Ok Sam we're on it. Describe your vision.

\- Ehm... The sea... I don't know which one but he's on an island ! Very green, but also very cold, there was snow... Waterfalls, cliffs above the sea...

\- Honey, do you know that it could be any scandinavian island right ? Don't you have any detail for me ?

\- Not really... Houses with grass instead of roofs... Sheeps... A circus. And lady's mantle.

\- What ?

\- The flower, lady's mantle !

\- Ok. How do I warn you about what I find ?

\- Figure it out, said Castiel. We have to go now. Goodbye Charlie, and thank you !

\- Bye bitches ! »

And the flaming silhouette disappeard. They all looked at each other. What just happened was going to change their entire future's, they were certain of it. And even if Rozary wasn't understanding at all how Sam could just have a vision, nor how Castiel had just reached that Charlie into Hogwarts, she knew that what she just saw was of the mosst important. But she didn't dare to ask any questions. The fear of looking stupid, or to annoy them with other questions... Hopefully for her, Johannes was just as curious as her about that. « You said earlier there wasn't anymore masters...

\- It's true, answered Dean. The true masters druids are all dead. But there's still one. Very powerful, learned and educated. The one who could teach us the knowledge lost for years. The one who could help us to... » He was interrupted by a growling stomach. Rozary's cheeks became slightly red, sinking into her chair.

« Rose... For how long haven't you eaten ? » asked Johannes. It was a relief to hear him calling her by her nickname, she realized. She never wanted to hear her real name anymore. Never.

« I... I don't know... At breakfast... Yesterday, she completed seeing the first light of the day above the forbidden forest. It seemed to her that years had passed since yesterday, when everything – or almost – was fine...

\- Go downstairs and eat, said Castiel. Then go back in class. I'll let you know if Charlie gives us any news...

\- But...

\- There's no buts, Rose. We don't want to arouse any suspicions. Act like you're used to, like nothing ever happened. Nobody must know.

\- And what about you ? You're not eating ? Are you going to stay locked in, waiting for Charlie to say she's found something ? What if it's in several days ?

\- Don't worry about us. What matters is that no one knows we're here. We'll figure out the rest. »

Rozary nodded, tired but determined, taking back her usual impassible mask, even if she knew she couldn't fake it for anyone in the room, she hoped she would be able to act like she used to in class, and especially in front of the others... With her new gaze, she didn't know what her reaction would be seeing Hogwarts' students...

  
  



	5. The Master

Johannes and Rozary walked together to the Great Hall, the young woman trying not to look at anybody directly in the eyes, impassible – but with a small smile on her lipe by Johannes' presence. It was hard enough to act like nothing had happened because even if she wasn't looking at anyone in the eyes she was seeing the energies, felt the people, some that she thought she appreciated and now didn't want to cross the way anymore, and some others she almost instinctively wanted to be closer to, but couldn't even look at without being suspicious. Sitting at Slytherin's table, surrounded by her cousin and his friends, she was trying to act like the usual until the moment Draco asked her what had happened the day before, and if Johannes was feeling better. Apparently he had started to scream a few moments after she had left, just before fainting. That pain's memory made her clench her jaws, but she gazed into Draco's grey eyes before answering. « Nothing serious. I needed some air. I feel better now.

\- If you say so... By the way, Mother and Father are wondering what you are going to do this holiday, he continued. Will you come home this time ?

\- I don't think so, she said looking at Johannes. I have something to deal with here first. But hug them for me will you ?

\- You're acting strange, Rose... Are you sure you're ok ?

\- I do, I... I just went to bed late because of Snape's homework about inferi... Oh, speaking of him, starting noon there'll be a new password for the commonroom. I completely forgot about that...

\- And what is it this time ?

\- Basilic.

\- What's that ? Didn't he find anything more ridiculous ?

\- Talk to him about it, she answered raising her shoulders before picking up her stuff and standing up. I have to go to class. See you later ! »

Johannes followed her up to the North tower, where she was about to have her divination's class. The atmosphere was, like everytime, suffocating and unbreathable, but it didn't really bother her, this time. Without truly knowing why, she was attracted by those lessons. She wasn't thinking that she had any fortune telling's gift but as curious as she was she thought it was interessant anyway.

After having sat on a pouf in a corner of the room, the druid by her side, she risked a look to the professor Trelawney and hold back a surprise hiccups. The halo around her was exactly the same as the ones she saw around Sam... Did that mean that he also had the double-vidion gift ? But... Then, that meant they were really about to find the last druid master ! She smiled, holding Johannes' hand, not really focused during this class, lost that she was into her thoughts and hopes... She'll help him bring back the harmony, to accomplish his destiny, whatever the cost !

But... What about Dumbledore ? And her mother ? And the Dark Lord ? All of that was scary, really scary. Castiel's face appeared in front of hers... If he could have done it, why not her ? He would help her, she was certain of that. She only had seen beauty and goodness in him, because he was fighting his past, his remords, he was strong, and without really realizing it or deciding anything, Castiel Novak had became Rozary's new menthor...

The morning happened without any inconvenience, Johannes'd rather went to Care of Magical Creatures instead of Potions – that was happening into the dungeons – and they found each other back at lunch. There, seeing at the Ravenclaws' table a few of students from her class frenetically writing on longs parchments, she realised that – on the contrary of what she said to her cousin at breakfast – she absolutely hadn't work on her Defense Against the Dark Arts' homework... What would Snape say ?

Johannes turned his face to look at her, like he had felt what was happeninginside her head. Obviously, he had felt it. « Rose ? What's going on ?

\- Nothing, I just realized I haven't done my homework about Inferi... And I'm wondering what's going to happen...

\- That can't be as terrible as you think it'll be, is it ?

\- We'll know soon enough »

Looking at her watch, she took her bag and stood up, followed by the druid, climbing the stairs up to a class in front of which were waiting a line of stressed students. They entered in the classroom, silent, at the professor's arrival. As usual, Rozary sat at the back of the room, and took out of her bag one book and two parchmin rolls. One blank, and an other on which you could see the beginning of an unfinished homework. When Snape walked through the class to pick them up, he gave her one of his darkest gaze. Hopefully for her, she was part of his house, because for something like that Slytherin would have had a good dozen of points less, if not more.

Back at his office, the teacher didn't even had the time to pronounce the smallest sarcasm when knocks were heard from the classroom's door. « Come in. » simply said Snape with a slow voice, barely opening his mouth while speaking. Like the others, Rozary and Johannes turned their faces to the door to see who dared disturb the old potions master while he haven't even started his class... It demanded butt, daring, and a lot of bravery to do such a thing...

Rozary's eyes windened seeing Castiel at the door, his eyes shining of a thousand different blues... Ayes that became immediately icy when they saw in which classroom he just entered. « Good afternoon professor... I'm here to borrow Johannes and Miss Lestrange. The headmaster is waiting for them in his office. »

The young woman faced her teacher, who was having a strange reaction, just like he was facing a ghost... But there was more into his eyes, like nostalgia, almost hope... Why ? That man could then feel something ? It seemed so, and that was the strangest. But he couldn't know that he wasn't fooling nor Johannes, nor Castiel, nor her. By the way, before this day, she only had the vision of that heartless teacher. He put his dark gaze right into Castiel's and slowly answered. « May I know why the headmaster is sending a stranger to take away two of my students ?

\- I am not a stranger... I am Clemens Lyon. Professor Dumbledore has contacted me to ask a few questions to Johannes, and learn more about him...

\- Johannes may follow you, but I truly doubt you'll need Miss Lestrange to interrogate a teenager...

\- And that's where you're wrong. But if you'd rather, I can go with Johannes to the headmaster's office, who will come back interrupt your class for Miss Lestrange...

\- So be it. Lestrange, go with your friend, and try to be back before the end of the class. I won't accept another half-done homework from you... »

Rozary cleaned up her desk in a record time, and left the room as far as possible without bringing more attention to her. When Castiel closed the door, they walked quickly in the direction of Dumbledore's office. « Castiel... What's happening ?

\- Charlie found him. We must leave at once.

\- No ! I can't... I have to... Dumbledore...

\- Dumbledore is the one who brought us here. He is the one who'll make us leave the castle. And you can't do anything for him.

\- But my...

\- You don't have to do anything. It is your choice, Rose, he answered stopping to look into her eyes. Seeing him you'll realize he doesn't need you to die. His days are numbered.

\- What ? But... Castiel ! » she tried to catch him up, but without any succes, he was already at the bottom of the stairs, saying the password right before they joined him.

Once they were in Dumbledore's office, she saw Sam and Dean by the fireplace, seeming to wait for them. The headmaster was sttanding in front of a shelf, probably looking for something. When he turned around, Rozary went breathless. So much darkness, above him, so much pain that when she crossed is gaze, she couldn't make one more step. Castiel walked towards him, thanking him with one look, before taking the phoenix feather he was handing him. The young woman recovered, and joined the others in front of the chimney, wondering what they were waiting for. « Rozary, Johannes, it had been a pleazsure meeting you. I hope you won't forget what you lived in this castle. Good luck... »

They thanked him with a look, then Castiel put a spell on the feather then put it in the middle of them. Rozary, the only one familiar with this way of transport, delicately took an extremity, making sign to the others to do the same. Next things became blurry, but she felt that specific pinch near her bellybuton, just before feeling like she was flying. When Castiel screamed to them to let go of the feather, she instantly did so at the same time as the others, anticipating the fall as she was taught to do by her aunt. She softly landed at the same time as Castiel when the three druids were on the ground, massageing their skull, elbow, or bellybutton... It was true they were employing the portkey for the first time, but Castiel couldn't have made them apparate all at the same time...

« Where are we ?

\- In a small Scotland village. Muggle, did he precise. So, no magic until we're at home.

\- At home ?

\- Yes. We chose to live safely here, near the forest. There's a very few inhabitants, which helps a lot for the discretion. And there's enough technologies to help us doing our researchs... »

They moved forward into the streets, greeting the few inhabitants they crossed the way of... Apparently everybody knew everybody, and Rozary asked herself what cover they have found to be at peace.

After a few minutes, they were able to see the forest a bit further, seeming like guarding a lonely, rather big, and most ordinary house. Castiel let them in, before going to the living room, a gigantic room where were several couches, but also a few tables against the walls covered in strange machines Rozary had never seen before, and a big table in the middle of the room where were parchments, books, and a giant world map on whoch two persons were laying over. One young asian boy and a woman, probably Charlie because hearing them she got up and greeted them with a smile « Hi bitches !

\- You were quick, said the asian boy. Did you get our message ?

\- Yes, answered Sam showing a small branche. Good job with the lady's mantle... So where're we going to ?

\- On the Féroë islands. A traveling circus. Apparently the master hides himself along the artists.

\- Thanks Kevin. One of you will have to remain here, said Castiel. There're remedies to distribute to the villagers this week, I'm going to make them ready. We leave in half an hour, make yourselves know who will come with us and who will stay... »

Castiel went away in a quick step, followed by Dean. Sam took the time to greet Charlie and Kevin, then introduced them to Rozary and Johannes. The witch – as Rose could see a magical and colorful halo around her – said them Hello by taking her in her arms, as if they knew each other's for ever. After what she asked them if they wanted to drink anything, pulling Kevin by the sleeve to the kitchen to prepare them hot chocolates. Sam invited the two teenagers to sit, and answered their unasked questions. « Here, he started, wee're at Kevin and Charlie's place. Charlie is born a witch, but being a... Squid, her parents abandonned her not far from here, and pretended nothing ever happened. She has been took care of by a muggle orphanage, and when she was around 11 she realised she could change her entire appareance... I don't know if there's a word for that. She took under her wing a young orphan that arrived a few years after her, worked as hard as she could, and when she turned 18 they came here, away from everything. Castiel found them with a family relationship, I think. They let us live here, and help us in our researchs, and to contact the different druids we already found. »

Rozary couldn't believe what she heard. Castiel was living with a muggle and a sqiud, that was already something, but more than that, Charlie was from his family ? But then... How?She promised herself to aks him when she'lll have the opportunity. And... Muggles ? Seriously ? She didn't even have notice they were, she thought while seeing them coming back in the room. Yet, their clothes were far from the wizarding fashion, but she just hadn't noticed... Those people... They were magnificent ! And, of course, the magic halo she had noticed around Charlie was her shapeshifting gift... Every gift had its own color, she realised. Life, kindness and empathy were more colorless, but shiny, pures. Nature was green, obviously, she wondered if druids could see them the same way as she did ? Fortune telling was grey, blurry, trouble and undescriptible, when Charlie's gift was colorful and lively, like screaming its place to the world. And death, she remembered thinking about Dumbledore, was oppressive, dark and icy.

She took the hot chocolate, feeling herself smile beside the fact that she didn't feel at her place... What if her mother found her ? It was more than certain that she'd do... Draco would certainly send a letter to Lucius and Cissy before dark, telling that she acted strange just before being called by an even stranger guy during class, never to be seen again. Malfoys would certainly warn Bellatrix... And she might have some news in a very short time. She chilled remembering the doloris spell, but also with fear to feel it once again...

A hand above hers, and she raised her eyes. Johannes. He won't leave her, of course she knew that, but what would her mother say if she had seen her surroundings ? That wwas more scary to her than she'll ever admit...

Around her, Sam, Charlie and Kevin were joyfully chatting, Johannes joined them from times to times, always keeping an eye on Rozary. Footsteps wer heard in the stairs, then Dean entered, followed by Castiel who put several bottles on the table. Turning to face them, he gazed his ocean blue eyes towards them and Rozary felt pierced, even tho he wasn't necessarily looking at her. « It's time to go...

\- Ok ! I'll join you, said Charlie. It is I who took contact with Isil, the witch who found the circus... She's waiting to guide us towards the island.

\- All right. Kevin, I labelled the bottles, you'll have to bring them to the villagers... I made a few more if we don't come back right away. Do you have your talking device to contact us ?

\- A phone, Castiel, it's called a phone. And yes, I have it, I'll call you if anything happens.

\- Perfect. Emergency bags everyone, we don't have time for luggages, we need to go as soon as possible. We aren't the only ones looking for him...

\- Castiel, interupted Sem, Rose and Johannes don't have any emergency bag... They don't have any stuff at all except for their uniforms... » Castiel, whose wand had slip through his sleeve when he approached the chimney, simply moved it loooking at the door, and two backpacks floated across the room to land at the teenagers' feet. « Ok, great. When do we leave ?

\- Now. »

Charlie hugged Kevin, muttering a few words to his ear before they separated. She took a deep breath, putted her bag on her shoulder, and joined the others by the fireplace. They used floo powder after having explained to Johannes how to use it, and where they were going. The « sweet circus » had made several times the turn across the Féroë islands, but had stopped for one week of festival not far from a forest a few lores from there were talking about.

They arrived in a small warm house, and were greeted by a young witch, around Charlie's age, with long blond and curly hair, and grey eyes. She hugged them, the shapeshifter thanking her for her hospitality while Castiel looked suspiciously around him. He wasn't comfortable, something was wrong, but Rozary couldn't have said what. Further more, it only seemed to bother her... No, not only her. Dean too, she noticed in the way the druid was looking at the death eater...So she was right, something was definitely wrong with Castiel if Dean could feel it too. Yes, but what ? She couldn't say how, nor what, but she could feel it and she had to do something. He turned the head to face her, and she was instantly taken away by what she saw in his gaze... So much pain, regrets, doubts... Was he... Scared ? It seemed so. She tried as she could with only her eyes to say him it'll all work out, to send him positives energies to make him feel less bad. She didn't know what she was doing, none the less if it was working. Probably, because she thought she saw gratefulness into the blue of his eyes before he faced the witch greeting them.

« Thanks for your help... It's very...

\- Very important, I know. Dumbledore and Charlie have been very clear on this point, that's why I reached you as soon as I found him. I don't know what you want with him. He's just a muggle trickster, and even if he's very good at it, he has nothing special...

\- You don't believe it, said simply Sam looking at her.

\- All right, I don't believe it. He is weird. But it's important, and Dumbledore has given me the mission to help you gather him to your cause, what I'm doing.

\- Thanks, Isil, added Charlie. You're the one who knows him best... How do we proceed ?

\- I don't really know him, even tho everyone here has heard of him... The sweet circus is one of the most famous of the archipel. I booked us tickets for tonight's show... I think it's better if we first have a preview of what he's capable of...

\- Great. Free time. We meet back here in two hours. »

Once Castiel was done talking, things got into place the most naturally. Charlie and Isil, their host, talked. About what exactly ? None could've said. Sam, Dean and Johannes went to get some air, and breathe the ambiant magic, enjoying to let their powers go freely for the first time in a long. Castiel and Rozary had sat in the same movement at the table, and the young woman realized Castiel was even worse that what she had thought. He looked in her eyes. « Have you thought about what you wanted to do, after Hogwarts ?

\- I... Note since I've met Johannes, she admitted. Before, I wanted to work at the Ministery, while acting in the shadows for You-Know-Who. But now... I don't really know anymore...

\- You tried to heal me earlier...

\- Oh... I didn't thought it threw. I just wanted you to feel better...

\- I do. I could teach you, if you want to ?

\- You'd really do that ?

\- I'm a mediwizard, remember ? And being rooted helps a lot, because now not only I can magically heal the person's physics, but I can also act on the energies, and give positives ones... Just like what you did earlier. Dean taught me... But Sam, Johannes and him are going to be very taken in the days to come. It's always eventful when we find another druid... They spend hours, even days to talk, exchanging their lives and stories... The fact that we're on the track of the last master doesn't fix anything. They'll have a lot to learn, the three of them. If he accepts to help...

\- Hm... So, if I understand correctly, if the master helps them, we won't see them around for a long time ? » Castiel answered negatively wiith his head. « Then, why not ? I'd be very curious to learn all you know ! And it's not like I've ruined all my chances to get my diploma... »

There were no answer. She took that chance to go upstairs, looking in each room for where their host had put her bag in, and decided to rest for a while before the evening truly start. She was exhausted...

Rozary went in a leaden sleep, without dreams, without even moving. She felt somebody slightly shaking her, calling her, and when she opened her eyes she noticed somebody had put a blanket over her. Who ? She couldn't have said. But Castiel was sitting on the border of her bed, looking at her slowly waking up. « Rose ?

\- Mmh... » She didn't wanted to get up. She still felt exhausted, like she hadn't slept at all, and yet something inside her was different, she just didn't know what exactly. « It's already time ? » Castiel nodded while standing up, she wanted to grab his arm and talk to him ; but she didn't know what to say, like it was the wrong moment. After all, maybe it was ? She didn't say nor do a thing, if just mumble she'd be downstairs in a minute. The man faced her just before passing the door, telling her to remove her uniform for something more civilian and discreet. Then he left, letting her alone.

Grabbing her bag, she putted several witch robes out of it, shaped to look like muggles dresses. She picked a black one with silver shades, then joined the others downstairs. All were sitting by the fireplace they arrived in. Dean was putting a strange object into his belt while Charlie seemed to talk alone, her hand on her ear. Rose stopped at the entrance of the room, trying to understand, when Isil got closer to her. « Surprising isn't it, when magical and muggle worlds mix up ?

\- What is it ? Asked the teenager looking at Sam, who was executing the same gestures as his brother a few moments earlier.

\- A muggle weapon, answered Isil. Able to kill if it's misused. But if I understood correctly, they don't master enough their druids powers to defend themselves without that. And Clemens can't be everywhere, can he ?

\- Clemens... » repeated Rozary without understanding, just before she remembered. « Oh, yes... No it's true, he can't protect everybody... Especially when I still have the Trace on me...

\- How old are you ?

\- I'll be seventeen in two months... Why ?

\- Nothing... I just wonder when Dumbledore will understand than those missions are not for children. I don't mean to insult you by that, it's just that it can be vary dangerous...

\- I don't need to be here to be in danger. »

Rozary had ended the conversation, joining the others who were thinking how to proceed. It happened that Charlie wasn't talking alone, but in a little box she put in her pocket, signaling them that Kevin had finished his round, and just came back home. The young Slytherin then understood that this box was that « phone » Kevin had mentioned several hours before. She wondered how it worked but said nothing, and silently listened.

The plan was simple. Going to the festival, finding the right marquee, and watch the show. Castiel, Sam, Dean and Isil would watch around and in case of any problem, Isil were taking Johannes and Rozary and apparate to her home. They were given a list of suspects behaviours to watch to. Then, they'd follow the master to the place he established his quaraters – a caban in the border of the forest – in small groups, and by differents ways.As Rozary hadn't reached her majority yet, she'd always stay either with Isil, either with Castiel – or Clemens, as he introduced himself to the witch...

They all left then, in one big group, the young woman smiling as she saw how the druids were blooming beside their heavy mission. All around them were floating maagical scrolls, they were radiating power... Was it beacause it was the first time she was truly looking at them, without any magical protection restraining their powers ? Beacause they were getting closer to the master ? Or did her gaze improve again ? She couldn't have said...

After a few minutes walking, they arrived at the festival's entrance, and let Isil book their entrance with the tickets she already got and muggle money, before they all came in.Castiel was going straight forward, even tho he didn't know which marquee was the right one. Dean and Sam couldn't stop looking around. Johannes was intimidated by so many people, and just hold Rozary's hand, trying to remain calm. But she could feel that he just wanted one thing : to see, to discover it all. She smiled, and felt something under her foot as she was trying to follow Castiel up. Stopping, she looked at what it could be, and took the piece of paper she just stepped onto, before bursting to laugh and call the others, reading it out loud as they all joined her. « The sweet circle is honored to present you his brand new show at the magic festival. Every night at 8p.m. Marquee 38 ally 9...

\- All right we have ten minutes, said Sam. But Marquee 38 and ally 9... Where is it ? »

Charlie sighed, and went to a men who was distributing tracts in the allies. She quickly came back, a smile on her lips, kindly making fun of Castiel who went right at the entrance, which was the exact opposite of where they were supposed to go, and she guided them with the man's intructions.

On the way, Dean baught a big bucket of pop-corn that he shared with everybody, despite Castiel's exasperate look – to which the druid simply said « Dude it's pop-corn ! Not poison !

\- We don't have time for...

\- Yes, I know, no time for distractions. Let me remind you we're in a magic festival. There're circuses. And do you know what people do in those kind of places ? They eat. So if you don't want us to be noticed, eat some cottoncandy, ok ?

\- Dean...

\- He is right, said Charlie. Eat something, it won't kill you... » Castiel looked at her in an undescriptible way. Outraged, panicked, and amused, like that sentence had already been spoken in another context. But Charlie didn't say more.

Truth is, none of those sweets were attractive to Rozary either, and she was secretly glad that it was Castiel that had been told to eat something, or she litteraly wouldn't have known where to put herself. Suddently she understood what was happening to the death eater : they knew nothing about muggle sweets... What were they going to like, or not ?

The wizard was looking at the bucket handed by the druid as like it was about to curse him, under the other's cheers. Castiel looked up to Rozary as she got closer and put her hand on Dean's arm, making him put the sweets away from their friend's vision. « Dean... We're from wizard families, and never truly have been in the muggle's world...

\- Yes I understood that, but what's your point ?

\- Have you ever seen Clemens eat sweets since you know him ? No isn't it ? And have you ever wonder why ?... » Seeing that Dean wasn't answering, she looked at the others.No one understood, if not Isil, who seemed rather amused by the situation. « We're from a completely different world. Nothing of what we learned as kids is the same as what you did. In the magical world, sweets are different, too. We don't know anything about what's for sale in those shops... »

Castiel looked gratefully to her, then to Dean, before lowering his eyes. Was he ashamed ? But that wasn't a weakness... And she understood the death eater. He had spent years to mistrust everything and everyone, and with the fact of being rooted, he had to handle that more than anything... Making the druids discover the sweets of his world mustn't have been his priority since they met... He had to hide the druids, then that story with Charlie must certainly bother him too... And the Dark Lord wasn't fixing anything, of that she was sure...

Dean seemed disappointed too, not having thought of that earlier. Not willing to make feel bad, she reached her hand to the bucket now hanging from the druid's arm, almost instantly followed by Castiel. They both took a small white ball and reached it to their lips.

That was surprising. It was crusty and moist at the same time, and deliciously sweet... She wondered how she'd been doing to this point without that. To the death eater's smile, she realised he was thinking the same, and it's Charlie who broke the silence by jumping out of joy and running away towards the stand, before coming back with two more articles, ont that looked like a pink cloud on a stick – that she gave to Castiel – and a strange red ball, also on a stick, that she offered to Rozary with a shining smile.

Looking at each other, the wizards didn't know what was expecting from them. They didn't even know how to eat those things ! « Bite in it », said Sam smiling to Rozary, looking at the red ball. What she did, quickly followed by Castiel who tried to bite in the pink cloud without really knowing what he was doing. When he tried to remove his head, it seemed like the whole cloud was glued to his face, and when he took away the stick – now freed from most part of the cloud – Dean came to rescue him and took the gluing cloud off his face, showing him that he was eating cottoncandy and was supposed to use his fingers if he didne't want to be covered with sugar.

Rozary on her side, wasn't helped either : The wind had risen, and seemed willing to glue her hair on the red ball, which after having took a bite appeared to be an appeled covered with... Whatever. « Candy apple » Sam told her. That wasn't bad, but not really easy to eat. One look at Castie, and they exanged, he took the apple and she, the cottoncandy. After being assured they were liking what they were eating – the cottoncandy in question tasted nothing but sugar, but eating a cloud was conceptual enough for her not to formalize – Charlie brought them to the marquee they were looking for.

Their group entered, sitting not far from the exit, but close enough from the center to be able to see the show correctly. Rozary knew this was the most dangerous part. Because they were going to be distracted by many ways, so they'd double their focus, and hoping that nobody but them had heard of the master for now...

But that wasn't the moment to think about all of that now. The marquee filled up then closed, and darkness came with that just before a circle of light lighten somebody at the center of the circus track. She didn't see anyone coming in ! Was is there from the start ? There were no footsteps in the sand, around him. That meant no invisibility cloak. Maybe did he apparate just before the light spotted him ? No, that was impossible, there were around muggles.

She didn't have the time to question herself longer because after a short introduction the man disappeared, and even the sand didn't seem to have suffered from his presence... Right, that was weird...

A soft music started, and animals started to get in. Horses, which did their show then got out. Tigers, then. Rozary started to get bored, she wasn't seeing how all that was extraordinary, even after that Charlie had wispered her that the animals were doing their shows alone... Without anyone to guide them. A simple spell could have done that, she thought, that was definitely boring... Maybe did she even fall a little asleep on Castiel's shoulder, who didn't do a thing to woke her, too buisy that he was looking the audience and the exits. But a flash of light woke her in a jump, and she even thought she let a little surprise scream go... She realised – too late – that she effectively had screamed, she noticed seeing the artist turning to face her, and give her a strange smile. For how long had he been there ? She couldn't have said, but feeling surprise emanate from Johannes next to her, he probably just had appeared just like at the beginning of the show. How long did she sleep ? That either, she couldn't have said, but the man in a red shirt was looking at her. Something, in his eyes... Like a golden sparkle. He was planning something, but what ? « Please, miss, will you join me ?... »

Rozary looked at the others, not knowing what to do. Did she have to go, taking the risk that, if something went wrong, she couldn't count on her friends' help ? Or at the contrary stay there, what would give her even more attention ? Castiel seemed to have the same mind-debate, before nodding slowly, incitating her to stand up. She took a big breath, before joining the artist on the track... Showing herself to act in the shadows... That was, even a few months ago, her live objective... Was she born to do so ? The'll know soon enough...

Without letting him go out of her sight, she walked towards him. And the more she got closer, the more she could see the sparkle into his eyes, and the more he seemed powerful. So many colors around him, mixing up in a golden halo surrounding him... He was litteraly irradiating.

He come join her at the beginning of the track, and kissed her hand before accompany her to the center of the track, still covered with sand. « If I may... What is your name ?

\- Rose...

\- All right then, Rose. I am going to need you for my last show. You, and... Loki ? Where are you again ? » A little fox came running, a rose in the mouth, and sat by their feet. « Good job buddy. For this show, no need for any decor... This young woman doesn't deserve a wooden construction to steal the light from her, she is way too... Shiny... »

His gaze was penetrating. What he said made her feel good inside, like he had knew she needed to hear something nice, to be reassured. A smile she knew was sincere showed itself on the master's face just before he looked back at the fox, now at Rozary's feet, seeming to want her attention. She didn't have the feeling to be in the middle of a watching crowd anymore, it was like it all had disappeared, while still being there... She looked into the animal's eyes, and understood immediately what he wanted, without really knowing how. Kneeling, she delicately took the flower he was handing her, before thanking him and standing back up again, her gaze fiwed on the flower. It was an ordinary red rose, a little bit similar to the one she had as a necklace. That wasn't a hasard, he did that on purpice, she was sure of it. Her fingers tightened on the flower's stem, when a hand came onto hers.

This contact really was strange. Real, and not at the same time. Like a dream, but better, soothing, truly. She left her head up to the golden man, because that's truly how she was seeing him now. His eyes looked like liquid gold, tainted with unbelieveble colors so varied she wasn't even sure they were really existing. It was impossible to read into his gaze, but she had the feeling he was almost apologizing from having brought back a painful memory. He spoke, but if she understood every word, they meant nothing all put in that order. That was nothing. The only thing important was for the audience to understand, if she was lost, that wasn't bad... How did he do to make her understand all of that with a simple look ?... She didn't know. She would have wanted to look up to Johannes, or Castiel, or even Charlie – why not ? - but she couldn't look at nothing but him.

Slowly, he took the rose from her hands and planted it in the sand, in front of their feet while Loki was slowly walking away and sitting, looking at them almost like if he'd understand... The master made her take a step back, then with a snap of his fingers the rose faded, curling up onto itself, just before another snap of fingers that made it shine a bit. A rose tree grow then, a bit too quickly, even for Rozary who was used to magic. When the flowers bloomed, the witch went breathless by their beauty. They were dark, of a pure black, gradianting to blue, a lively blue, then lighter, and the border of the petals were white. The roses were as big as her fists, and she looked at him taking one and slightly putting it into her hair, before snapping his fingres again. The blooming tree that had just grown exploded, not of those violent and murdering explosions, but rather like the rose tree's wood was disappearing, and each flower was a soap bubble, the colored petals falling like snow all around them, before joining into volutes.

She looked at the one whom she ignored the name. What he was doing was wonderful ! He never stopped looking at her either, like if... She didn't know. But he was doing it. The audience's reactions seemed far, smothered while she was right there, in this warmth cocoon, almost happy for the first time in so long... Then, she noticed again the flying petals, that she'd almost had forgotten, which came together around the master's hand like hundreds of butterflies, then turning into an unique golden rose that he strained her, before suddently facing the audience that he greeted, accompanied her back to the border of the circus track. He kissed her hand again, a sparkle in his gaze, before just... disappear.

Hands grabbed her, and two ocean blue eyes looked deep into hers, reading her mind. She heard him asking her if she was fine, but she'd rather open him her mind, remiving her occlumancy barreer. She knew Castiel would see, would understand. And he did. All panick suddently left the death eater, and she saw a flash of relief in his eyes just before he simply said. « Let's get out of here. ».

The time it took them to leave the festival, Castiel litteraly never let her go, keeping a hand around her shoulders. They were like in a formation, Isil and Charlie in the front, Dean and Castiel on her right and lef, right against her, Johannes and Sam on their heels. All were ready to raise their wands or weapons, she even felt Johannes sparkling of magic behind her, and she really didn't understand why... Dean seemed, like often, understand. Even if he often lacked of tact and finesse, she could see that he had a heart, that he only was worried about Castiel and his death eater status, and she was surprised he looked at her while they were crossing the desertic allies. « What happened ?

\- I... It was wonderful ! He was so... Beautiful ! It wasn't nature obeying to him, he really became the petals, it was all fluid, and pure...

\- Wait, said Dean catching her arm and making the entire group stop – getting an icy look from Castiel. You mean you didn't disappear ?

\- What do you mean disappear ? I never moved between the moments he offered me the flowers ! What did you see ? Novak ! »

She had turned to face him, calling him by his family name. But what she saw petrified her. He was disappointed. Why did she disappoint him ? She suddently understood by seeing a movement in the corner of her eye. By a blink of the eyes, Isil had became stupefied. Rozary had disappointed the death eater by revealing his true identity in front of somebody working for Dumbledore, thereso an enemy of the Dark Lord. That identity which might certainly been protected by a spell or something else. And Rozary had just put in danger a mission as mortal as capital for the entire universe. She did it without willing to, calling people by their family name was a current thing amongst the wizards... Sadly, that name wasn't supposed to exist anymore.

Shame overwhelmed her instantly, but the death eater didn't let her time to pity herself. He stepped back, Isil's wand in his hand – how did it get there ? « Change of plans. Sam, you go first with Charlie. Steal a car, anything, go to the forest and secure the house. Dean, you follow with Rose and Johannes. If all happens well, when he'll see them together, he'll understand. I will join you with Isil, and as soon as it's done, we get home. When the portkey will land, everybody run to the house and stays there without moving until I autorised otherwise. » On those words, he took Isil's arm, and apparated.

Instantly, Dean, Sam and Charlie looked at each others and took Johannes and Rozary's hands, running out of the festival, straight to the parking that was hopefully for them indicated. Sam and Charlie went towards several motorbikes, when Dean got to a car, which he broke the window before making the teenagers entering in the back. Afterwards he did something under the wheel, then the engine roared. He looked at his brother and his friend, who had just started their engines up. The two brothers looked at each other, and what Rozary saw between them made her breathless. Each of them would litteraly do anything to save the other. They knew that, were wishing each other good luck, asking each other to be careful, telling that all was right and that they were going to make it, screaming at the other something way more powerful than just the word « love »... That bond was more beautiful that everything she ever saw.

The very second after, the motorbikes went off in a bang, followed by Dean. Sam and Charlie rapidely made distance between them, driving quickly across the city right to the forest. Rozary and Johannes holded hands, the ayes deep in each other's. HE got scared, she could feel it by now. Afraid for her. When he knew she was perfectly fine. What he had felt was the exact opposite of what he had seen, and that scare him off. Came to make this all worse the fact that they all might die tonight, or starting Chaos' arrival... And all of it because her, little traitress to her blood, wasn't able to follow orders...

Dean grumbled during long minutes on the little town's circulation before being able to get out, driving fast on a tiny and lonely road towards the forest. Nobody let go of their guard, and she was holding her last reflexes, violent to herself not to get her wand out of her pocket to defend herself... Having, more than that, the ministery of magic on their backs was something they couldn't afford.

Soon, there were nothing but darkness around them, the moon and stars watching them as they got close to the caban where the master had made his quarters. And as she was watching the moon, sur surprised herself to hope there was something out there, something more powerful that could be able to help them in their insane quest...

The car stopped, and the three of them got out of it, running towards the door they knew was unique – hopefully for them, Isil had come to look around before they all got there. They got in, and Rozary felt electricity in the air even before seeing the invisible. She only noticed one thing. Charlie and Sam, each one in a corner of the room, the master in the centre. Dean called his brother, but he couldn't look away of the trickster, and vice-versa. It was just like they were lost in each other... And, even before understanding what was happening, she saw volutes of grey and golden magic come out of the two druids, bonding together forever. So that was what being rooted was like ? It was wonderful, and horrible at the same time, because that they want it or not, that this stranger help them or not, their fate were now forever bonded, whatever could happen next... A scary beauty...

But the most scary part was yet to come. A veil caught the eyes of the two men instantly, and the volutes suffounding them became blurry, opacs, trouble and hypnotics... What vision could they be having right now ? She couldn't have said. Dean rushed to Sam as they were falling on the ground, like every muscle had left their body. Slowly, Rozary got closer of the one who had made feel so good only a few minutes earlier... She kneeled by his side, before seeing a small movement in the shadows... Loki. She softly called him, not knowing truly why... They had to get out of that trance, it was urgent, vital, and as Castiel was absent the fox seemed like the only option they had...

The animal shyly got closer, slowly, then reached his master, sniffing his face, licking his cheek. He needed nothing else, the blurry veil instantly left the man's eyes, leaving place to this liquid gold full of colors she had seen earlier. When he saw her he tries to step backwards, truly scared, and it's movements and screams behind her that made her understand what was happening. Rozzary stepped back feeling Sam's and Johannes' hands on her shoulders. She couldn't see them but could feel them, recognizing their ways of touching her, the energies they were sending without even a look.

Sam squatted between her and the master. « It is not her you saw...

\- What ? Sam what are you talking about ?

\- The truth, Dean ! We saw Kevin being torture by this woman... It was...

\- My mother. » Rozary completed, suddently understanding. She knew Sam wanted to quilify what he saw of horrible, but after all the two words were synonyms...

Castiel still wasn't there... And she realised she wasn't the only one worrying about it when she saw Dean looking at the door. « Dean... Is he all right ?

\- Yes he will be there soo... What's that again ? » Loki had jumped on his legs, running to the door before coming back, chasing an owl, jumping in every ways, on the furnitures, trying to catch it. But the master seemed to finally look at something else than Sam, and with only one look to the animal, the fox sat, not stopping to follow the owl with his eyes, owl which landed on the tensed arm of the golden man. Rozary looked at them, she knew that owl... It's only when she turned the head to face her that she recognized her.

« Sora ?...

\- She is exhausted, said the master. But he's fine, except that she doesn't like Loki, what I can understand. She say she has something for you...

\- You can speak to animals ? » Asked Dean when Rozary got closer of the black owl. She had no enveloppe in her beak, that meant there was something else... That's when she saw, around one of the bird's paw, a thin leather band around a parchment. Her hands shaking a big, she undo the knot and unrowled it all.

Sometimes, when everything seems wobbly, it just needs a little something to switch into something even worse that everything you could imagine. That was the case for Rozary. Everything seemed getting her to her doom. But this note she just got, those five words to be precise, were the worst thing that could ever happen right now. She didn't notice Johannes reading above her shoulder, then discretely call Dean who did the same before being lost in his mind. Rozary was lost in her thoughts, blocking on the piece of parchment and those five words, written in a cahotic handwriting, as cahotic as the one who wrote them...

A small noise pointed out Castiel and Isil's appearance. The deah eater ran towards Rozary, and snatched out the parchment from her hands. « I know where you are. » he read out loud. « Rose, is it...

\- Her who sent it ? Yes...

\- Castiel, said Sam in a hurry. We need to go home. Now. Kevin is in danger... »

A red light suddently rose, more and more shiny and vivid. Rose looked down at her necklace, then looked at the others, who were strangely looking at her. « So are we... » Was it fear she saw in Castiel's eyes ? Impossible to say. But he faces Dean, his wand slipping from his sleeve. When he was looking around for an object able to transport them all, Dean screamed to them to gather in a circle, that they had to go as fast as they could.

« But... What about Sora ? And... » The young woman looked down at the small fox running between his master's legs, visibly scared.

Everything was happening so fast, she was lost, she wasn't knowing who was doing nor believing what. She saw Castiel reach his arm and a teapot came into his hand. Somebody got scared. Somebody else calmed the first down. Isil took Rozary's hand, and while Castiel was preparing the portkey she simply said « Let her here. She will find you back...

\- Not the fox, said Sam looking at the master who was irradiating so much contradictory emotions he almost got scary.

\- Then he stays here, said Castiel.

\- What ? No !

\- Castiel they're bounded... They can't be separated just like that ! » The death eater looked deep in Sam's eyes, reading his mind, trying to figure out why the druid was speaking instead of the master... What he saw interrupted him in what he was doing. The red light became wider, the wooden walls shaked. Someone screamed, but who ?...

The death eater squatted and took the fox in his arms, counting down, each one of them touching the teapot. She felt herself dragged by the bellybutton, and suddently all became twirling. The last thing she saw of the caban was the collapsing roof, letting be seen the stars and the dark sky, in which a green light appeared, drawing a skull and a snake getting out of its mouth...


	6. The White Death Eater

They all violently fell on the floor. Rozary grabbed a hand, not even looking for whose it could be, and ran towards the forest. Her legs were burning, and her lungs hurted so much it seemed to her they didn't exist anymore. But she kept going. It was hard, but she had to bring this person to safety, it was vital, she could feel deep inside of her. Once they were inside, she took him upstairs and entered a room she thought was random, before all her muscles released and she finally calmed down.

A flash of light outside made her look at the window. There, Castiel and Isil were fighting against five death eaters, a few feets away from the house. By reflex, Rozary looked around them and saw no bodies... Than meant everybody got inside.

The person she took in like if her life depended on it got closer, but didn't speak for what seemed like eternity. « They are...

\- Death eaters, nodded Rozary. Voldemort's supporters. And the woman fighting Castiel is my mother...

\- Your... » Dean looked up to the place the second part of himself was risking his life, and the world's. And the young woman felt an icy, piercing fear invade her. But one of the death eaters apparated. Then another. Then two others after them. Bellatrix burst into a crazy laugh and screamed something to Castiel, before disappearing at her turn. Castiel turned his face to them, and Rozary knew he was thinking about Dean, and only him, she could litteraly see it, like if Castiel's thoughts were getting out of his head and all rushed towards the person standing behind her.

Castiel took Isil's hand and rushed into the house, browsing every room muttering protection spells, going several times by what revealed itself being Dean's bedroom, in which Rozary and him were standing. He looked deep into Rozary's eyes, his gaze filled with grattitude, before facing Dean.

« I must go. Isil stays with you. Don't get out of the house until I come back. No matter what happens. » Dean nodded, and Rozary wanted to say something, but Castiel apparated at the same time.

Dean and Rozary went downstairs, silent as shadows, worried, shakes, chocked, their hands shaking. No one knew what was going to happen. And no one truly wanted to...

As they entered the living room, a red headed fury rushed on them, Rozary immediately putting herself on guard, raising her wand while Dean and Isil were trying to restrain Charlie, who was screaming, fighting, asking where he was... That's when the yound women blamed herself for having almost forgotten abour Kevin. That was her fault too, she was certain of it. « I don't know where he is Charlie... I'd like to tell you that he's safe, but I don't want to lie to you... »

A hand hold hers. Johannes. Obviously. Obly him could understand how deep it was hurting, how hard the last three days have been feeling for her... Say it's only been three days ! So many things had happened that she barely realised it... Johannes hugged her. It was the first time he was doing it with so much ardor, and she could feel he was sending her the energy she needed, but she didn't wanted it and pushed him away. She didn't wanted any help, yet she wanted everything to be fixed around her, after all it was nothing if she was feeling bad as long as her friends were well... She even wished she could switch places with Kevin if that could have made Charlie stop crying. She was constantly switching appearance, her hair going from red to black, from long to short, her skin changing too as Rozary could see, taking the same shade as Kevin's... That hurt her deep to a point she couldn't have believe was possible.

Dean, whose face was pale as death itself, looked at Isil and asked her to take Charlie in her room, and to stay with her. No one was supposed to get out of the house. After what he looked at his brother. « Sam... What did you see ?

\- Nothing precise, at first. Noises of broken things, and seeing the state of the house I now understand why... Then screams. Kevin. And there was this woman... » Sam looked down at Rozary, who tried to have a light voice.

« You can say it. Scary. Crazy. Powerful. Dark. I know all of that, Sam. It's my mother we're talking about. As long as I remember she've always been like that. And... » The young woman was interrupted by a scream. Dean just had felt on the floor, shaked with convulsions, screaming and rolling around in every ways like each cell of his body has been deepened in the most corrosive potion.

Looking around, she faced Sam, but he seemed as helpless as her in this situation... That ended as quickly as it started. She looked at the druid, and what made her protect him earlier came back, and she bend over him, not making him raise up until he felt ready to do so. « Dean ?...

\- Something's wrong, answered him satting in a growl. Castiel... »

That's when a voice rose up. A voice none of them had heard for several long minutes. « What's going on here ? Who are you ? Where am I ? Why are those people chasing us, and for fuck's sake why did you bring me in this house nobody can leave anymore ? »

A wave of calm invade then the room, without nobody really planning it. Rozary, as the three other druids looked a Johannes, who couldn't gaze away of the master. « What do you know about your powers master ?

\- Master ? Please my name is Gabriel. How did you do that ?

I don't know. I wanted people to calm down and feel better. But we can't answer all your questions if we don't know which answers you already have...

\- I have nothing ! I was born almost fifty years ago. My mother died giving me birth. My father and brothers got killed, and all I can remember is a green light. When I was a child, I noticed I could speak to animals, and act on the nature. I then looked in every library I could find to get answers. I never found any about my family, or my powers, all I know is that I'm born with them, or other silly things about souls and energies I could read.

\- Here. They're not silly things. » Johannes seemed strangely confidant, and Rozary almost didn't recognize him anymore. Maybe was it the presence of that man that was doing that to him ? He didn't know himself, she understood. He just wanted everybody to be at the same point of understanding. Maybe she should have let them be, after all Castiel had told her that when they were seeing each other, druids were sharing knowledge. But she didn't want to leave Johannes, nor Dean. Something was telling her to not let them go off her sight. She then helped Dean get up and sitting in a couch, quickly followed by the others. Johannes hadn't stop talking. « Magic is real. Under different forms. Dean, Sam, you and myself are druids. Rose and the other people you've met, wizards.

\- All right, you're crazy.

\- Think about it, said Rozary. You saw me, I know you did. Not my body, but me, from the inside. Am I crazy ? Would we be lying to you ? Do we even look like anything you've ever seen ? » She saw the golden sparkle leave the eyes of the man disappear for one heartbeat. He was doubting. « You're the only one who can help them...

\- I can't help anyone ! What are you expecting of me ?

\- Listen, said Sam kneeling before him. You made us see something, when we had the proof it wasn't truly happening. You create plants from nothing, you can speak to animals... Help us. Please... »

Said Gabriel seemed to calm down looking at Sam's gaze, while you still could feel he was upset, probably even more not understanding what was happening to him, why he was believing this stranger, why all his instincts were telling him not to go away from him anymore. It's Dean who explained it to him, with a weak and crackling voice. « You've rooted. Like Rose and Johannes, like Castiel and me. You depend on each other, now... For the better and the worse. » laughed him softly.

Rozary took his hand, and sended him energies like she did with Castiel – it seemed months ago...

  
  


xxx

  
  


Graves. Moving shadows. With a simple unspoken spell, Castiel had coated his black robes and penetrated the circle like the others, his blue and icy gaze looking at the other death eaters, who he could each recognize behind their masks. Bellatrix. Even snape, for once that he was there... And in the centre of this darkness circle, him, darker than all, more horrible than anything he've seen since he met Dean and had rooted...

« Now that you're all here... Let me tell you a story. The story of a young gifted wizard. Brilliant, and promising, from one of the purest families... Whom I took under my wing when he just entered the hospital he was working in. I offered him a deal, gave him a mission to accomplish. Disappear. And that's what he did you see, he just... disappeared. He let his merits being attributed to others just to satisfy my will of him not existing. Then, almost sixteen years ago happened my... Misfortune with Harry Potter. I disappeared, too. And he accomplished every order I gave him, every little demand. And when I came back two years ago, this perfect servant took nack his place in the shadows. But something happened. Something I hadn't planned.

« As you know I am looking for every person powerful enough to help us. And druids, even if I had my share of doing into their extermination, are not extinguished... I then send my Shadow talk to them. They'd join me, or die. That's when I started to believe something went wrong. I had to go in person to realize that indeed, for the first time in years, this so perfect Shadow who could do anything... Had failed. He then obviously devoted his life to hunt down the last living druds... »

Castiel clenched his jaws remembering the Unbreakable Serment. « But I wasn't precise enough in my ordrers, sadly... You see, I should have precised that he was supposed to deliver them to me... And not making them gather in groups and pretend to follow wrong leads. That's when I started to have doubts, and so I putted a taboo on the name he was wearing before entering my services. But nothing. He was following his researchs, and was getting closer of something worldwide, he said. I then let him go his way... And last night, alarms ranged. I'd rather believe it was a mistake. So I looked, deep into the memories I stole him, after every little piece of forgery. They were all authentics, of course. He really is gifted. I then turned myself to his informant. And what did I learn about him ?... » The dark lord turned to face Castiel, and gazed his red, full of chaos and craziness eyes right into the death eater's. The pain was immediate, dazzling, never before had he suffered like that. The more the time passed, the more his master was becoming crazy, of a destructive and devastating craziness... Violent... He could feel this violence in every part of his body, of his soul, of his being... Up to Dean. He was in pain, too, Castiel knew that, and that was making the pain even worse...

What had seemed to him an eternity was just the beginning of his torture, because the dark lord stopped pretending to be calm and threatening, his voice becoming as sharp as knives, almost muttering as long as the words he was saying seemed to make him suffer too, without gazing away of his servant he thought was so perfect and who was screaming his pain out at his feet. « My Shadow were getting his informations from... Muggle sources. He had bonded with this parasite, and even sometimes helped healing some of them... »

Judging that Castiel's screams would alter the following of his story, he turned away from him ans started to walk again, following his story. « I was about to send somebody to this muggle. To get real informations. Because the druids are getting stronger. But I didn't want to take the risk of having alterated informations. I then selected a few servents whose loyaulty was certain, and moved there myself. That wasn't easy to get him to talk but sometimes you just got to be persuasive, and I didn't have the time... The taboo I had put on the forgotten identity of my Shadow had triggered again.

« We then moved faster. Half of my followers got to the origin of the signal, and the others took the muggle elsewhere. They continued their work, giving me every piece of information they were getting. That's where I learned, my dear friends, that my dearest servant had not only found the most powerful druids in six centuries, but had also reunited him with his knowledge master... I truly am... Sincerely disappointed in you, Castiel... »

When his name was spoken, the pain came back, more violent than before, and he wondered if he would got alive from this story to see Dean one last time... The spell was so violent he even couldn't faint. The dark lord bend over him, and his voice resonated inside his skull, making it all even more painful. It was like he was screaming inside his head...

Then it all became black. When he opened his eyes, day was rising over the graves...

  
  


xxx

  
  


She was sending him energy for several minutes now when Rozary felt Dean finally relax under her hands. They had continued answering Gabriel's questions, trying to convince him by every possible way of what he thought was impossible... How could two entire worlds cohabit like that ? How could muggles and wizards evolve next to the other without ever borrow anything from the other culture, without even percieve the other's existence ? That was beyond him. But she felt Dean tensing again. He hopefully had a saving reflex – did Castiel told him by any way what would happen ? - and he took one of the couch's pillows next to him and bit it, just before screaming, struggling again. Even muffled, his screams were of pure pain, begging, but they got worse just before it all ended suddently. Dean had faint. « It's worse than usual, said Sam checking on his brother.

\- What do we do to make him feel better ?

\- He usually doesn't faint, and Castiel comes back right after...

\- Heal him, simply said Gabriel.

\- What ? But how ?

\- Just the way you did it earlier. With energies. Focus, you can do it.

\- And anchor yourself. It's the most important, added Johannes.

\- Anchor ?

\- Connect yourself to the ground, and what's surrounding yourself, in the here and now. Do not evade yourself too much when you're playing with energies, you could easily get lost into them... »

Rozary nodded. The master and Johannes looked at each other. Something happened, between them, something she didn't recognize. Then she closed her eyes and focused on her feet, anchoring herself to the ground as she could before focusing on Dean, trying as she could to give him what he needed. How long did it last ? Nothing else existed around her, she didn't percieve the voices nor the other's presence anymore, all what mattered was that Dean feels better, she had to...

How long did she stay there, doing all what was in her powers to help Dean no matter what, she couldn't have said. It was both a moment, and an eternity. But Dean woke up. She felt it more than she saw it truth is, but that didn't matter. It was not time to stop yet. Small by small, she saw colors coming back to him, and energies turn faster around him. « Rose... » The young woman turned her head. Castiel. He came back. He had the pale skin of a tombstone and seemed about to faint, but he was there. And the feeling it gave her to see him standing beofre her was undescriptible. His eyes were shining of gratefullness, like if by healing Dean she had healed him too... What was probably the case.

Not a word was spoken anymore. Something bad had happened, they all knew that, and the ambiant fear was palpable. Castiel looked at the stairs hearing footsteps : Isil and Charlie were getting downstairs. He certainly told them to do so, but when ? How ?

They all sat at the big table, but the death eater. « I have something important to tell you. And I want all of you to hear it knowing how bad this is. You can leave the room if you're willing to, but don't come back. Ever. And forget everything you know about me. » Nobody moved. Because everyone could feel the fear in his voice. What was happening was bad. Really. That was beyond their own lives, that could be seen in the terror in his eyes. The situation was so bad that even Loki, Gabriel's fox, had stood up from the pillow he was sleeping on since their arrival to come sniffing the death eater's shoe.

« You-Know-Who has Kevin. Don't worry Charlie, he's alive, interrupted him himself seeing the young woman's reaction. But I don't know for how long. He found him because of a spell he casted on my real name... That led him to me, and then to you all. I apologize for that. I tried to get around my orders as much as I could to see what I'm seeing this very moment. Druids. I never thought I'd see any. And now I have the honor to be included in your culture more than any wizard in many years...

\- Cas... That looks like...

\- This is not a farewell, Dean. Not yet. He is planning something awful, concerning Potter, or you. It's universal, I saw it. I just don't know what it is. I want to tell you that no matter what, you have to remember to believe. The chances are more together than ever. We have to stop him... »

His gaze had faded as long as he was speaking, before falling on his chair. Dean grabbed him, then carried him up to their room. They all looked at each other, and Gabriel faced Sam, asking him something with his eyes. He simply answered, his voice broken, able now to understand the bound between Dean and Castiel and how his brother must feel helpless and useless not to be able to do anything for his half. « No, Gabriel... He is the doctor... »

They stayed a few more moments without moving, before one by one standing up, and leave in a different way. Isil and Rozary went upstairs, joining Dean, who was laying again Castiel, inert.Both the witches knew the violence of the spell he suffered, and the calm and the help they'd need to recover from it. Rozary sat at the bottom of their bed, on the ground, and focused like earlier on this broken whole that was before her, on the two faces of this same coin, yet cracked, on the verge of the break up. She had to help them. Isil bend over her, giving her a bottle. Their mission was to heal... Why was she handing her a potion, her who couldn't feel better compare to the sleeping couple ? « It's an awakening potion, said Isil. To make you holding up while Johannes is resting. I noticed you were going down when he is away from you... » The young lady nodded, then took a sip, letting Isil going through Castiel's stuff, to find something useful.

Several days passed. Charlie and Sam took turns to look at the couple, and hydrate them when they were conscious. Johannes spent his days between Rozary, whom he was helping getting stronger by putting his hands on hers, whom he was nourishing and hydrating ; and Gabriel, who -nobody understood how – had managed to grow plants into the bedroom, plants who both helped the sicks to heal and helped Rozary not to get too high in the energies he was using. Isil was her trying to maintain the house in order, lightening the ambiance when it became too dark, watching Rozary when Johannes was asleep, sometimes giving one or another potion to the teenager or to the two men, carefully, their stock being thinner that she had thought.

The routine has installed very quickly. On the second day, Dean and Castiel had started to show signs of consciousness. They had moved. It was little, but it already was huge. Sam had awoken, raising his head to see them both hugging each other. On the third day, they ate. Or at least opened they their mouth to whatever Charlie, in tears, was putting in it. On the fourth, they muttered, too fast for anyone to understand, seeming to talk to each other. The fifth really was strange, beacause they spent the day looking at each other. Without talking, or anything. But so many beautiful feelings were passing from ont to the other that is was not disturbing. It was almost appeasing to be in the room on that day – beside the fact that the situation still was bad for everyone – the druid and the death eater were irradiating of happiness just to see the other alive, that much that everybody was for once in the room to enjoy this peaceful ambiance.

It's on that evening that they truly moved. That their voices were heard again. Something broke their happiness bubble, and Dean took Castiel's head between his hands, and kissed him like he was seeing him for the last time. Rozary finally stopped her ritual, feeling her skin sparkle and her head spinning, exhausted. She look at the death eater sanding up and staring at her, then at Dean. Message recieved. They something else passed in the gaze the couple was exanging. Something more beautiful than any word could ever describe. Then Castiel apparated. And they waited, anxious and scared.

  
  


xxx

  
  


Never yet had he seen this mansion before. He had appeared in great dark and cold hallway, and a squeaky voice greeted him, making him lower his gaze to see a house elf. « If the master's friend is willing to follow me...

\- And where ?

\- The master has been very clear about your appareance. You wait un the small room, and at the master's signal humble Kirby makes you enter without interrupting. Please go faster, did he say leading him in several hallways. It'll be time soon. »

Castiel then followd him, wondering whose house it could have been, a little scared about what was going to happen today. Under his mask, his breath was warming up his face, reminding him that this person standing in this dark room wasn't truly him anymore. He knew that thought came from Dean, and he mentally apologized for all the pain he'd caused them since they met, and for all of those who'd follow them until their end. He tried to look around, but the ambiance was so oppressive that everytime he looked at a well, it seemed to come closer. He stared then at the door, wondering what was happening on the other side... But not a sound could get through. Then he waited, wondering how long it'll be. Was he going to meet him alone, or in public ? He couldn't have predicted. All he knew is that this abomination that became the dark lord liked to make people suffer, and that the angst of the waiting was volontary.

He was used to that. He had lived worse. All was going to be well, and he'll soon join back the others... But at what cost ? He interrupted Dean's comforting sayings in his heart. He was going to disappoint them again, hurt them. Hurt him. He wasn't better than anyone... Was he ? A thought wandered in his head. He couldn't go back without Kevin. He owed Charlie that. That was the least he could do.

The door interrupted his thoughts by opening. Slowly, he walked through it, closing his mind as much as he could, looking straignt towards him. The dark circle opened at his arrival and closed itself behind him. Apparently the message had passed, because there was almost as much prople in the circle as there used to be before the dark lord's... « accident » with Potter. Castiel knew what he had to do. Going towards that thing that wasn't even human anymore, the eyes looking down, hearing his voice calling him. Kneeling. And wait. Again...

« As all of you have seen, seemed to continue the dark lord, I don't like disloyaulty. Each one of you here had made a serment, and I intend from you to respect it, or I will make you do so... » A dead silence ruled around. Cold was entering each cell of his body, but were they inside or outside ? Was he feeling the wind, or on the contrary was it so cold in this room ?

« But they won't tell of me that I have no word. I acted badly. And I apologize for that, Castiel... » The cold, which couldn't have seem more pierceful, iced his heart. He felt his master move in front of him, and a big scream was heard. Yelding to temptation he looked up to see Kevin, half petrified, floating above us his head down. Their gaze crossed, and the young man screamed Castiel's name, begging him to help, but he just looked down again, ashamed, not feeling anymore how the hard and cold ground was hurting his knees. « As my best servant, you deserve the best reward. That's why I gathered you all here tonight, friends. For the ceremony of enthronement of the very first white death eater ! »

Castiel looked up at the dark lord, scared. And, his eyes deep into that red gaze, he understood. It was over. He didn't exactly know what was going to happen, but he knew it was the end of all he could've dream about living one day. Because it was way more than just a reward. It was a way to make sure he won't betray him again, him or the others, because none of the death eaters, after what was going to happen tonight, would do anything against their master's orders. The man burst into laugh, and took Castiel's left arm incanting, removing his sleeve with his wand. His voice was strange, he was speaking a language as dark as what was remaining of his soul, thought the death eater his eyes gazing Kevin. It's seeing the flash of green light he understood, and tried to go backwards, but the dark lord was fiermly holding himnd he looked deep into his eyes, his red and crazy gaze capturing his, putting his wand onto the death eater's mark, without stopping to talk.

Maybe did he die at that point, altogether. Or at least, he'd rather have. The pain was unbearable, none of the spell he'd been under until then were that hurtful. He felt those darkness insinuating deep inn his soul and corrupt each of his cells. And yet, beside the pain, beside the screams, he couldn't look at anything else that his master's chaotic red gaze. Then the pain stopped, leaving a vague burning memory on each part of his being, and his arm fell on the floor. His tattoo, such as his clothed, had became the brighter white.

All his body was shaking, fighting like never against this intrusion, against this darkness that was binding to his soul... And the pain came back, to rightfully show him he didn't have a choice. His body rose up without Castiel commanding anything, putting him one knee on the ground, bowing before his master.

He tried to take back control, fighting, screaming from the inside, and the darkness now surrounding his soul seemed to chill of pleasure from this contact, feeding from it, making it stronger, turning it small by small into rage, a devastating and murderous rage nobody could ever concieve. In a heartbeat, his wand slipped from his sleeve to his hand, and he rose up the head, his blue eyes now tainted with red, not controlling any gesture anymore. He killed, tortured each death eater his master told him to. He was animated by such anger that he soon lost control, attacking every person in front of him, cutting, cursing, enchanting, anything mattered but destruction. Then a word, only one, his name, told by the one without whom nothing would ever have happened. « Castiel... » And that was it. On a single word from the dark lord he had stopped, kneeling, waiting for the following orders of his master.

Then the dark lord burst into laugh. « Excuse him... All of that power... He'll control it next time won't you ? » For all answer, Castiel stood up and joined the circle with the others, his white outfit now torn up, burned at some places, bloody, too. But nothing mattered. He was lost... « Lucius ! Bellatrix ! May I know where are your children in the mission I gave them ?

\- Master, said Malefoy kneeling. My son thinks he has found the solution to your problem. He's working on it as we speak...

\- Good. And what about your daughter, Bella ?

\- That little traitress to her blood ran away, Master. But I'll bring you her crybaby head... » No one could've read Bellatrix's voice. But, amongst the volutes of her dark aura, Castiel could clearly see how scared she was, and also how she liked being there, kneeling before her master she'd do anything for.

The dark lord just had to say Castiel's name ont more time to make him stand, this time in front of Bellatrix. Bellatrix and her dark, crazy eyes. Bellatrix who, even tho she might have been beautiful a few years earlier, had ow the face of a skull. Bellatrix who'd rather torture her own daughter than admitting she wanted to think by herself. And rage came back.

It wasn't a blind rage, this time. He was perfectly aware of using what just happened to him as an excuse. But to see that woman scream, paying for all the atrocitied she had made, paying for Rozary's youth that she had ruined, was truly appeasing. He was almost pleased to her her screams. Looking deep into her eyes, he enjoyed that moment, that power, knowing that this life was between his hands and that he needed just one thought to end it. He almost did it, Bellatrix's screams getting higher than ever, when he suddently felt a warmth inside his heart. That life between his hands, was insignificant. But it was a life. Who was he, to decide or not to take it ?

The beggings intensified. He had stopped, leaving Bellatrix there, lying, scared, looking at her, more and more disgusted by what he saw, what he had done. He stood up and turned around, but thinking of a trick the death eater burst into a crazy laugh looking at him, what made him turning back and look deep into her eyes. « Go ahead Castiel, kill me ! You won't save her. You won't save anyone. A shadow can't save anyone, not even itself !

\- I won't kill you, Bellatrix. Your life is the one of an insignificant parasite, but it's not my mission. But I will give you a warning. Listen carefully, because it'll be the only one. Forget about your daughter. Harm her just one more time, and I swear that dead itself won't save you from what I'll do to you. » On those words, he focused harder than ever to take back over that darkness inside him, and apparate away from there, someplace where, he knew it, somebody was waiting for him...

  
  


  
  


xxx

  
  


Rozary hadn't had the time to leave her position that, already, she could feel Dean's pain. He was really bad. She felt it way before he sat on the bed, his head in his hands. And while the others were looking at each other, anxious, she chose to stay useful. She owed that to Castiel and the others. She was the one who spoke his name out loud, and who led He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to them. She was also the one who could not stay at her place, bringing them trouble they didn't need. She then took the bottle of awakening potion next to her, and emptied her at once. Seeing how Dean – and, by extention, Castiel – were apprehending the thing was scary, and she felt terribly comfortable helping them getting better. That forbid her comparating herself to a thorn in the foot of the ones she loved.

Focusing was easy, and she quickly joined this state of trance where nothing else mattered but chasing the darkness. Look out for Dean. He seemed focus, maybe trying to give everything he was recieving to Castiel, maybe to reassure him too... She didn't know. Truth is, it didn't matter. She then continued, her hands tracing without her noticing some symbols she had seen in her divination book, instinctively knowing how to use them. Hopefully for her, she had the time to draw them all, because she had barely finished when alarms ranged in her mind. Something bad was about to happen, they were told. Then, all became black. Red. Tainted of chaos and disorder, of swirling darkness, of rage, and pain. She tried to protect herself from that, but this thing was so powerful it was able to touch her, and even tho it only lasted a few seconds Rozary thought she was doomed to eternal damnation just by this simple contact. But she couldn't cry on herself. She hadn't either the luxury to take care of the darkness inside her for now. She had to help Dean, again with this visceral need, why ? She had to, maybe to redeem herself for what she had done to Castiel, and thereso to him, yes, that must be that...

One symbol brought together all the darkness that had contaminated her in a corner of her head, and two more kept it there, poor barrage facing a torrent and which, soon or later, would let this chaos spread his power. But not right now. Then she fought with all of her power what was invading Dea... Castiel. It was Castiel who needed help, maybe the others were trying to influence her on the person to heal ? Maybe was it Dean, who'd prefer the death eater being healed. She didn't know, but she tried to help Castiel, focusing on him and only him. And she found him. What she felt terrified her, but she stayed, she must help him... It seemed to her like an eternity, but only a few heartbeats had happened between Castiel's warning and the moment she finally found him, strongly determined to help him.

However, she barely had the time to try to help her friend that she was pushed back, far from Castiel. The darkness invading him had sent her back to her starting point. Rozary then draw into her personal ressources, opening like never before, first finding Dean not far from her, and she decided to focus on him. After all, him and Castiel were a whole, and if she was correctly doing it what would help one would help the other, too. And that's what she did, feeling all the things that soul was feeling, fear, rage, pain, anger, sadness too... And suddently, something else. Pleasure. The pleasure to embrace that evil, to use it, and letting it carry the soul and not even think anymore... Pain, again, having thought that... Shame... Then, finally, the saving darkness...

  
  



End file.
